A Stormy Situation
by leafgreenlove
Summary: Dawn & Paul, May & Drew, Misty & Ash, and Leaf & Gary are respectively paired up to complete a big school project together. What could possibly go wrong? Well...a lot, probably. But maybe they might even find a bit of romance when a thunderstorm starts to brew. Fairly equal Ikari, Contest, Poke, and Leafgreen/Oldrival.
1. Project Pairing Pandemonium

***I've gone through an edited my A/Ns because I'm really annoying and ramble too much* XD**

**Hey guys! :) Here's the first multi-chapter fic I'm posting****  
Just so you know, I'm putting the main characters as Dawn and Paul but all of the shippings in here are going to be pretty EQUAL! (There will be a little special Ikari part at the end~)**

**And without further ado...I shall shut up and let you read. :D  
After the disclaimer: :p**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon.**

* * *

"Alright, class, please settle down," Professor Juniper kindly requested to the boisterous group of teenagers before her. A warm smile was spread across her face while she patiently waited for them to comply. About fifteen seconds later, it became clear that they were taking their good old time to follow directions, if they were going to at all. The warm smile faded as the thirty-year-old woman scowled at the disobedient high schoolers that were, unfortunately, her class.

"Ohmigosh, so did you hear?" A usual chatty, gossiping blunette asked around in her group of friends. "Leaf is so crushing on Gary!" One of the girls with long, chocolate hair and side-bangs blushed furiously at this remark.

"Wow. That's such old news, Dawn. You must be short on gossip lately." A brunette with shoulder-length hair pointed out.

"You're right! Ahahaha, you're onto me, May." She confessed.

"Shut up, guys! Who said it was true?" The girl with long brown hair defended. "Why don't we talk about something else…like…the weather? I heard there might be a rain shower later on." She tried. The others in the conversation stared at her in boredom. "Oh! Here's some news, Misty has a _huge _crush on Ash!" She proudly added.

May and Dawn sighed. "Everyone knows that, Leaf." They deadpanned.

"NO, I DO NOT! QUIT SAYING THAT!" The redhead that was sitting with them ferociously denied as she took out a mallet from seemingly nowhere and proceeded to whack her three friends over their heads with it.

Then, across the room, there was another particularly loud cluster of students.

"Hey, Drew, do you think Paul has any emotion?" A raven-haired boy questioned a boy with unnatural-looking green locks curiously.

Drew tilted his head to the side. "Hm, I'm not sure. I've always wondered myself." He flicked his hair as he turned his head to make eye contact with a spiky-haired brunet to his left. "What do _you_ think, Gary? Have you ever witnessed any emotion coming from Paul?"

Gary snapped out of his trance from staring at a girl for too long and blinked as he thought over Drew's question. "Hmm…He has to have _some _emotions. He is human after all, right?" And then there was a new question to debate. The three boys conversing with each other took a moment to stare at their subject who sat just a couple of feet away from them. His head was down as he tried to focus on his work and his purple tresses, which reached just below his chin, covered his face.

Drew snapped his fingers. "He must have emotions because we've all seen him angry!" He declared his breakthrough to his fellow peers.

"That's right!" Ash realized. "He gets mad at me all the time!" He glanced at Paul. "Do you think he can hear us?"

Paul's fist slightly tightened on his grip on the pencil which he wrote with, nearly piercing the paper.

"I feel like it might not be such a good idea to be discussing this with him right in front of us, guys…" Gary sheepishly mentioned. He was stricken with fear along with his two other friends. "I have a hot date tonight, I _cannot _be killed!"

Drew and Ash sweat-dropped at his reasons to be avoiding a murderous Paul.

"Hey, guys, I don't think he can hear us!" Ash stupidly remarked, full of glee. "Otherwise, he probably would have said something, right?"

Drew and Gary were about to duck for cover, knowing that an annoying Ash always pushed Paul to his limits when the teacher interrupted once again.

"ALRIGHT YOU STUPID KIDS, SHUT UP, ALL OF YOU, UNLESS YOU WANT EXTRA HOMEWORK EVERY SINGLE LAST DAY OF THE SCHOOL YEAR!" Professor Juniper finally yelled in a menacing voice that caused every single student in her large class to quiet down. Her warm smile instantaneously reappeared. "Thank you. Now, it's time to assign your partners for the big project that's due next Friday!" She cheerfully declared.

The entire class groaned in disappointment.

"ALRIGHT THEN, IT'S DUE MONDAY! YOU WANT ME TO MAKE IT SATURDAY? BECAUSE I WILL!"

The teenagers shrunk in their desks in fear, knowing very well she somehow would.

"Okay, I've picked out your partners for you," She paused slightly, waiting for just _one _exasperated sigh. Luckily, no one piped up. "I'll just read them off the list now." Professor Juniper sweetly said.

The class waited silently, some in anticipation, and some in boredom or grief.

"Sapphire and Ruby, Flint and Lola, James and Jessie…" The Professor continued to list several more pairs. She flipped a page over to reveal the last four pairs on her list. "…Drew and May, Misty and Ash, Dawn and Paul, and, lastly, Gary and Leaf."

The last four pairs listed sat in shock with their mouths gaping, except for Paul who just scowled as always and muttered, "Hn." in annoyance.

* * *

"I can't believe Professor Juniper paired us up with those guys." May moped alongside Misty, Dawn, and Leaf down the crowded school hallways.

"Why are _you _so sad, May? You know you have a huge crush on Drew." Leaf pointed out.

"I do not!" May snapped. "Working with him is going to be complete hell!"

"Well he certainly likes _you_." Misty said. "I mean, he gives you roses like _every day_! You're lucky."

"Oh, please. He's such an arrogant jerk and he teases me all the time! He would never like me." May decided. Leaf, Dawn, and Misty sweat-dropped at her last remark.

"May really is dense, huh?" Dawn made a side comment to Leaf and Misty, who nodded in response.

"WHAT DID YOU GUYS SAY?" May demanded.

"Oh, nothing." Dawn smirked and shrugged her shoulders, feigning innocence. "So Misty, aren't you happy you got paired up with Ash? Maybe sparks will finally fly when you guys are _alone _together for so long." She winked at her.

Misty blushed furiously. "Of course I'm not!" She quickly said. "Ash is so dense that our project will take forever! I'll probably get stuck doing all of the work."

"At least Ash will try to help you! Twenty bucks says that Gary is going to cancel working on our project for an 'emergency date'." Leaf bet.

The other three thought for a moment. "I'm not going against that bet." May admitted and nodded with Misty and Dawn in unison.

"What's an 'emergency date'?" Dawn inquired to Leaf.

"Apparently Gary is such a player that he 'needs to go on dates frequently to survive'." Leaf rolled her eyes in disgust. "He supposedly has a 'medical condition' that has to do with it."

"Wow. Oh, so what about you, Dawn? How much pain do you think you'll be in studying with a cold, emotionless rock?" Misty joked.

Dawn shrugged indifferently. "I don't know. Paul _is_ pretty smart. Maybe it won't be that bad."

"I bet it won't!" May smirked mischievously. "Because you _so _have a crush on him."

"No way!" Leaf and Misty exclaimed in shock.

"Yep," May said knowingly. "Every day in seventh period, I catch her checking him out. I only noticed it since we got new seating assignments and now I sit next to Dawny here!" She teased.

Dawn blushed faintly and smiled. "Shut up, guys. I don't like him."

"You don't seem to be denying it too much." Misty pointed out. She glanced up at one of the digital clocks on the wall. "Shit! I'm gonna miss my ride! My sisters tend to not wait up for me when they pick me up." She rolled her eyes. "I'll talk to you guys this weekend, kay?"

"Bye, Misty!" Dawn, May, and Leaf called after their orange-haired friend.

"It's 2:30 already?" Leaf realized. "Ugh! I'm gonna miss my bus! Text you guys later!" Without another word, she hurried off down the hall and towards the line of busses outside.

"Seeya, Leaf!" Dawn and May hollered as the brunette ran off.

"So what's the topic of our project again?" Dawn made conversation as they walked down the hallway.

"Professor Juniper said that each of us in class has a different Pokémon type topic, and that everyone's topic is going to be posted on her page on the school's website by 3:00 PM today." May repeated what she had heard last period. "Maybe you should've been paying attention instead of ogling at Paul." She teased lightly.

"Shut up! I was _not_!" Dawn fought off another blush.

"You weren't _what_?" A monotone voice overheard their conversation. May and Dawn jumped slightly as they realized that their respective partners for Professor Juniper's project stood a few paces away from them.

"Shit! What are _you _guys doing here?" May asked as she and Dawn held a hand over their chest, recovering from the surprise.

"This is our school, May. It's only natural that we would be here. Speaking of which, no profanity at school." Drew added nonchalantly and flipped his hair. A faint crowd of fangirls in the background 'oo'ed and 'aah'ed at his casual action.

May rolled her eyes. "That's obviously not what I meant."

"Yeah, why are you guys just randomly standing in our path listening to our conversation like stalkers?" Dawn asked.

"I wouldn't waste my time stalking you two." He replied haughtily. "Unfortunately I had to come here to see _Maple _about our project-"

"Then why's Paul here?" Dawn folded her arms.

"I needed to talk to you about our project." He responded bluntly.

"Yeah, we both decided that we want to get this project over with as soon as possible so, Maple, you can come over to my place right now to work on it." Drew offhandedly mentioned. He grabbed May by the wrist and started to tow her away down the hall before she could object.

"What the hell? This is _kidnapping_! Let me go, Hayden!" May struggled as she was effortlessly dragged away. "I have to go home and have my afterschool snack! I was going to eat ramen!" She whined as if they weren't _already _causing a scene.

Dawn sweat-dropped. "_That's _what she's so worked up about?"

"Troublesome," Paul said abruptly. "You can come over to my house later so we can finish the project." He turned on his heels to leave.

"Oh _can _I?" Dawn argued. "Who said that I was free? Maybe I'm busy later on."

"Too bad. I want to get this project over with." He bluntly stated. "I'll pick you up around six."

"Oh, so it's a date?" Dawn taunted playfully.

"No." Paul coldly responded as he walked away, not once turning back.

"Hmph." Dawn mumbled. "I'd like to think that you have emotions, but I'm not even sure if you have a heart, Paul." She said under her breath. "Well, us four girls are going to have fun working on this stupid project with our _wonderful_ partners." She sarcastically sighed.

* * *

**The first chapter is going to be a bit shorter than the rest so ya know! :D**

**If you have time, I hope you review and tell me how it was!  
****(I'm new to the whole multi-chappy thing so I'd love to improve!) **


	2. Light Rain on the Way?

**yay! I'm back ****from vacation! I missed you guys~! :)**

**Onto the story! **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon.  
(Or Facebook...I felt the need to say that because I mentioned it very briefly in this chapter :D)**

* * *

By the time Drew had dragged May all the way outside the school she decided that she was fed up with it already. "FINE Drew, I'll go to your house if you let me walk." May paused. "And there had better be some good food over there, too!"

Drew smirked. "Good, my arm was getting tired." He dropped her wrist and continued walking. May ran a little to catch up.

"So how exactly are we getting to your house?" May asked.

"By an automobile, if you must know." Drew replied.

May face-palmed in anger. "You know I meant something more along the lines of taking the bus, getting a ride, or if you had a car here!" She fumed.

"My ride's right there." He casually pointed to a sleek black Mercedes waiting at the curb. There was a driver in a uniform sitting up front.

May simply gaped at the scene. "You have your own _driver_?"

"Yeah." He shrugged. He noticed she had stopped walked to stare at the expensive vehicle in awe. He sighed. "Come on, we're not going to finish our project just standing around." He dragged her to the car once again by the wrist.

"So what do you think our project topic will be? I wonder if the list is up online by now." May tried to make conversation. She was sitting next to Drew in the back seat of the car.

Drew shrugged with his arms folded. "How the hell would I know?"

"_No profanity_." May mocked him.

"_On school grounds_." Drew added.

May stuck her tongue out at him childishly, knowing she couldn't win this argument. She mimicked him by folding her arms and stared out the window beside her. Drew rolled his eyes and decided to focus on something else, like the trees passing by as they rode along.

"I can't believe I got stuck with _you_." May suddenly brought up.

Drew sighed in annoyance, but regained his haughty composure. "Clearly this is a blessing on your part, because _everyone _dreams of working with the famous stud, _Drew Hayden_." He teased.

May shook her head and sighed, still intently looking out the window, until the car came to a stop. May raised her eyebrows. "Why are we stopping?"

The driver opened Drew's side of the car first since he was closer, and then came around to open May's door for her. As she stepped out, she stared at the property before her in awe.

"We're stopping because we're at my house, duh." Drew flicked his hair and said obviously.

May simply gaped at the small mansion of a house that stood in front of her. It was at least three stories high and the porch had tall, marble beams supporting the roof overhead. The grass and flowers out front were lush and well-kept. There was a notably large amount of roses, especially. The house had white siding with black shutters that seems freshly paint, as there were no marks whatsoever.

"You _live _here?" May questioned in amazement. Drew nodded casually. "Damn! You must be filthy rich!"

He shrugged. "Just somewhat." The driver handed him his backpack which he slung over one shoulder and began to walk up the long walkway to the house. May was handed her bag as well. She thanked the driver and followed Drew as to not get lost.

When they both finally reached the grand front door, a maid in uniform opened it for them as she bowed respectfully. "Good afternoon."

"Hey." Drew casually responded and walked right past her.

"Good afternoon, miss." May smiled courteously as she followed Drew. "Where are we going, Drew?"

"The kitchen. You said you would cooperate if you had ramen, right?"

"Well my exact words were, 'good food'." She pointed out. "And are _you_ planning on cooking it for me? If _you_ are, I have a feeling that that would break our deal." She stated bluntly.

"Are you saying that _I'm _a bad cook?" He lightly asked. "Tch. Whatever. It's not like I would cook for you anyways. Why the hell would I do that when we have our own personal chefs here?" He asked, expecting it to already be obvious to her.

"You have your own personal chefs, too?" May exclaimed.

"Yes." He responded simply as they arrived in a kitchen the size of a restaurant's filled with several chefs. There were granite countertops with deep russet cabinets, black and white tiles for the floor, and every possible piece of silver cooking utensils hanging above a counter island. "Chefs, please make her a very filling plate or so or ramen. Knowing her, she may eat us out of house and home if we aren't careful." He mentioned.

"Yes, Drew, sir." They politely nodded. They immediately got to work doing this and that about the large room.

Drew took May to an adjacent room with a large mahogany dining table with eight matching chairs that had red seat cushions. The walls were crimson, the floor was a polished wood, and there was a grand chandelier overhead. They sat across from each other at two of the chairs. Almost immediately, the chefs arrived with a monstrous plate of noodles on a silver platter. The chef placed the plate in front of May with some silverware and chopsticks. She kindly thanked him and, without further ado, proceeded to scarf down the food with only the chopsticks at a rapid speed.

"Pardon me, sir, but…Wh-what _is _this girl?" He asked in shock, unable to keep his jaw from hanging.

"That's my classmate." He sheepishly replied. "I know it must be amazing to see her eat for the first time. She leaves the entire cafeteria in shock some days." Drew rolled his eyes. "It's amazing how she doesn't get fat with this kind of diet. It's bound to happen _somed_ay." He said the last part especially loud so that May could hear him over slurping down half of the noodles.

"Hey!" May furrowed her eyebrows in anger. "Hm. Well whatever, I'm not going to let you interrupt my nice second lunch." She resumed where she had left off eating.

The chef slowly backed out of the dining room in fear. Drew read a book from his backpack to keep himself busy.

"All done!" May declared victoriously as she slurped the very last noodle on the plate.

"Impossible!" The chef overheard from the other room as he came running into the room. "How can a girl eat _so much_? I put in enough helpings for five men!"

May blushed, slightly embarrassed, while Drew just closed his book and flicked his hair. "Let's go, fatty." He taunted as he walked off into a different room and down the hall. May stuck her tongue out at him and silently thanked the chef again for the meal. After that, she followed Drew to a different part of the house.

"Where are we going now?" May asked as she patted her satisfied stomach.

"We're going to work on the project in my room. It's the only place in this house that the maids and such won't constantly bother us." He rolled his eyes.

"Oh, okay." May said, still extremely happy from the gourmet meal she had just consumed.

After a few minutes of walking down various hallways and staircases that May was sure any normal person would get lost in, they arrived at a seemingly normal wooden door that they entered through to find Drew's bedroom.

"Wow," May remarked. "This is the most normal part of your house that I've seen so far." And it was true. There _were _the latest electronics scattered about, a flat screen TV hanging against the wall and a king-sized bed, but other than that, it seemed like a normal teenage boy's room. There was a nightstand with a patterned lamp, a desk and computer with a rolling chair, and some dressers. The wall was green in color with various contest and sports team posters and the floor was hardwood.

"Yeah. It's the only normal room in our house. Sometimes I get sick of all the fancy stuff." He admitted nonchalantly.

May smiled. He seemed somewhat down-to-earth even though he would never acknowledge it.

"Well quit standing around. Let's get this project over with." Drew sat down at a chair in front of his desk. May took up a seat at the foot of the bed since it was so close by. "Okay, it's past three o'clock now so Professor Juniper should have our assignment posted." He rationalized. The computer loaded super quickly and the school website was up in no time. May and Drew took a moment as they stared at the text in front of them until May burst out laughing.

"SHUT UP!" Drew yelled.

May wiped a tear from her eye as she continued laughing. "What are you talking about?" She lightly asked.

"I know why you're cracking up, Maple." He muttered.

"It looks like Professor Juniper got creative. She gave the _Grass _type to a _grasshead_." May teased while her laughing eventually died down.

"Professor Juniper is a professional. I'm sure she just randomly assigned our project topics." Drew huffed.

"Sure, sure, except for us. Since she's stuck staring at your lime hair forty-five minutes a day! She probably made an obvious connection." She stuck her tongue out.

Drew rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Let's just get this over with so I can kick you out as soon as possible." He decided. "Now let's find a good website about Grass-type Pokémon."

May nodded.

"Well get to work!" Drew ordered.

"Well I don't have a freaking computer!" May argued.

"There are a couple of laptops over there!" Drew pointed to a corner across the room. "Duh." He said as though it was a common thing to have a spare stack of laptops in your room.

May huffed and rolled her eyes. "Stupid rich kids." She muttered under her breath. "What's your password?" She asked as she started up the machine and tried logging on. "Is it 'IloveMay'?" She taunted jokingly.

"No, of course not. Give me that." He grabbed the laptop and hurriedly typed in the letter combination. "Here. Now, GET TO WORK." He ordered again and returned to what he was doing on his computer.

May laid back on the bed comfortably and began researching.

_One hour later…_

Drew sat back, finally finished. "Okay, I think I've got a good amount of research. How about you? May? MAY?" Drew yelled, having to get the brunette's attention. She had somehow managed a pair of earphones from her bag and was now listening to loud pop music.

"Wh-what?" She asked as she tore the buds out of her ear. "Yeah? You need something?"

"I need to see your share of the work." Drew explained as he grabbed the laptop from her.

May sat up quickly. "Hey, wait!" She pleaded. It was too late though, Drew stared at the screen she was on in infuriation.

"PLEASE tell me you haven't been on Facebook this whole time." Drew deadpanned.

"You insult me!" May crossed her arms. "Check the other tab I have up."

"Phew." Drew sighed. "Good. Still, YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN ON FACEBOOK AT ALL!" He reproached.

"I had to check my notifications!" She whined.

Drew rolled his eyes and ignored her reasoning. "How are we going to format all of this?"

"Let's do an essay!" May enthused. "It's easy, and it doesn't have to be too creative."

"Tch. And you call yourself a Pokémon Coordinator?" Drew flicked his hair. "That's why you'll never be as good as me."

May ignored his comment as she was used to him criticizing her, and her Coordinator skills especially. "You know, Grass-types are really good with Coordinating! My Venusaur is great." She mused.

"No duh, I have a Grass-type myself, remember? Roserade, also known as the Pokémon who could kick your Venusaur's tail any day." He taunted.

"As if." She sneered. "We'll have to find out some other time. Continue typing." May got up and knelt down in front of the desk beside Drew since, ironically, the room contained spare laptops yet no other chairs. "Oooh, good introductory paragraph! Now let's do two separate paragraphs about Grass-type Pokémon's strengths and weaknesses with Battling and Coordinating!" May suggested.

"Not a bad idea." Drew confessed.

May glanced off of the notes he had taken by hand and the ones she had on the laptop. "We'll start with Coordinating."

"Of course." Drew scoffed with a smirk across his face.

"Grass-type moves in Coordinating usually fall under the Smart category, generally speaking." She read. "Also-"

"I already added that and a bunch of other facts. This is my area of expertise." He bragged. May glanced up and saw a long paragraph containing a bunch of cited information about Grass-types and Coordinating.

"Okay. I am slightly impressed." She raised her eyebrows and admitted. Now, onto Grass-types and battling." She took another look off of the notes. Drew actually listened more intently this time. "Grass-types have several obstacles offensive-wise. And this is because they have a total of five other type-weaknesses. They are, Fire, Bug, Ice, Flying, and Poison. Also, they aren't very effective against Steel and Dragon-type Pokémon."

* * *

Misty was sprawled out on a black leather couch in her home reading a magazine. She flipped a page, glancing across the latest news about Water-type Pokémon. "I sure hope Ash and I at least get Water-types to research. That way working alone wouldn't be so bad." She flung her head back against the arm of the couch and sighed. "Why did I have to get paired with the densest guy in class?"

The redhead kicked her feet up on the armrest of the piece of furniture. "Sure, Ash is really nice and a good friend, not to mention he's kind of cute." Her eyes widened as she admitted the last part to herself. "I-I-I mean…_Pikachu_ is cute. _That _is what I meant." She attempted to convince herself in her mind for several moments, which she ultimately failed at. "UGGGH!" She said in frustration.

"What's up, little sis?" Violet asked as she and the other two of Misty's older sisters strode down a staircase into the room that Misty was relaxing in.

The three famous Sensational Sisters of Cerulean were all wearing one-piece, short skirt-like swimsuits in various girly colors. They each had a matching towel around their necks which showed that they had gone for a dip at the local pool and had just gotten back.

"Yah, like, you sounded stressed out when we walked in." Daisy pointed out. "You wanna talk about it?" She sat on a matching sofa across from her younger sister as Lily and Violet followed her lead.

Misty blinked and sat up straight. "Who died?" She bluntly asked.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Daisy questioned, feigning innocence.

"Yah, we just wanted to help you out with whatever your problem is." Lily said in the sweetest voice she could muster.

Misty gave them a death stare, unaffected by their act. "I'm not falling for this stupid act again. Whatever you want me to do; I'm not going to do it." She deadpanned.

"Aw, but pleeeease, Misty?" They all whined in synchronization.

"No." She harshly stated.

"But you haven't even heard what we wanted to ask you." Lily reasoned.

"No." Misty apathetically repeated.

"Do it, for _us_?" Violet pleaded.

"No."

"Please, Misty!" Daisy pouted. "I mean, we do you favors all of the time."

"No." Misty rolled her eyes. "And you _never _do anything for me!" She pointed out.

"How about this then, you do _us _one teensy-weensy little favor and we'll cook…chicken, mashed potatoes, and macaroni and cheese for dinner!" Lily offered with a tone of pain to her voice.

"But, Lily! The carbs!" Daisy exclaimed.

"It's for our little sister, Daisy…I suppose we'll live…" Violet comforted her blonde-haired sister while the depressed aura around herself matched her dark blue-purple hair as she went to sulk in a corner.

_Hmmm…_ Misty thought. _Well, it is a big deal to not have to eat their barely-filling low calorie meals that I usually have to stomach…then again, they must want something big if they're going to sacrifice _that _much to get me to go along with their plans…_

Misty sighed. "Alright!" She finally said. Her three older sisters were sobbing together in a group huddle over their dinner plans for later. When she spoke, they hopefully looked up. "I'll do you a stupid favor. What do you want?" She reluctantly asked.

"I'm so glad that you could see it our way, little sis." Daisy beamed, immaculately cured of her previous depression.

"Yep, perfect!" Lily agreed.

"Okay, so all you have to do is go to the pool and pick up our pool bag that we left there on accident." Violet smirked.

Misty raised an eyebrow in distrust. "Why can't you just go back and get it? It's not that far of a walk and besides, you can drive a car."

"Well 'cause our car doesn't have a roof-" Lily jabbed her with her elbow without Misty noticing. "Erm, I mean we have…manicure appointments." Violet suspiciously responded.

Misty had a hard time believing them, but the sound of a dinner without tofu and low-fat yogurt was a very rare occasion. "Fine. So, what's so important about it?"

"Our phones _and _make-up pouches are in that bag!" Lily sobbed uncontrollably.

"It's okay, Lily. Misty will get our phones and make-up back for us. I think we can make it." Daisy comforted with a tear in her ear and joined her two like sisters in a supportive hug."

Misty just sighed and face-palmed herself. "The sooner I get out of this madhouse, the better." She muttered under her breath and started towards the front door upstairs. She opened the door and shivered. "It's a little windy." She noticed. She grabbed her jacket and looked at her watch. It read 5:30 PM. "I hope I'll get back home in time to watch that new TV show, _Water-types Weekly, _at seven." She remembered as she slipped a light blue cardigan over her yellow tank top.

* * *

_From: Dawn  
__To: Leaf  
__OMG, Leaf! i have 2 go over to Paul's later 2 work on our project! Helppp mee!_

Leaf read over the text that her blunette friend had just sent to her. She replied quickly as to not make an anxious Dawn wait.

_From: Leaf  
__To: Dawn  
__what r yu so nervous about? R yu afraid things r gonna heat up and he might make a move on yu? ;D_

Leaf smirked at her tease of a text. She took a moment to thank Arceus that she was very far away from Dawn for her violent reaction.

_From: Dawn  
__To: Leaf  
__LEAFF! I HOPE THAT YOU JUST THANKED ARCEUS THAT YOU ARE VERY VERY__FAR AWAY FROM ME RIGHT NOW! IMMA KILL U WHE NXT! D:_

"Oh, Dawn, you know me oh so well." Leaf chuckled to herself.

_From: Leaf  
__To: Dawn  
__first yu hav 2 catch mee! ;p now what r yu rlly so nervous about?_

_From: Dawn  
__To: Leaf  
__Paul is scary and heartless! He prolly lives in a dungeon or torture chamber or sumthing, i need to borrow a weapon for self-defense._

Leaf sighed in utter disappointment at her friend's irrational mind.

_From: Leaf  
__To: Dawn  
__seriously, Dawn? i bet yur just nervous cuz it might be all awkward nd stuff_

Dawn took a while to reply as if she was thinking over what Leaf had pointed out.

_From: Dawn  
__To: Leaf  
__yeah, i guess ur right._

_From: Leaf  
__To: Dawn  
__arent i always? *flips hair!*_

_From: Dawn  
__To: Leaf  
__dnt turn into drew on me here, leaf. -,- anywayss, he's gonna be picking me up in like a half hour so im gonna go and clean my room so when my mom gets home she wont b totally pissed. ttyl girly! :)_

_From: Leaf  
__To: Dawn  
__Alriiight cya nd goodluck, hun! (:_

Leaf sat there doing nothing for a while until she came up with a plan to solve her dilemma of being extremely and inhumanely bored. "I know what to do!" She stood up and dramatically posed. "I shall text Gary so we can set up a specific time to work on our project so he won't ditch me over a stupid slutty date!" She decided with a look of determination across her face.

_Several minutes and text messages later…_

"Oh. My. Arceus! Freaking answer, stupid Gary!" Leaf yelled aloud to herself. Luckily, no one was home to hear her screaming to herself. "Ugh! I need to know when we can start our dumb project, Gary! Why won't you answer any of my texts?" Leaf paused for a moment of thought. "He's probably getting ready for his stupid date with that stupid slut with the stupid long blond hair. Stupid." She ranted.

"I'm going to be stuck doing this project on my own, aren't I?" She reasoned with herself. "I really should stop talking to myself now….now….NOW! SHUT UP, ME!" Leaf slumped into a comfy chair in the living room of her house. "Goodness, I'm going insane aren't I?" She realized. "No, this is just stress, because I'm going to FAIL this project on my own." She whined. The brunette's cell phone suddenly went off across the room on a coffee table. She quickly lunged for it in hope that Gary might have _actually _replied. Instead, she was greeted with a call from her mom.

Leaf sighed in disappointment as she pressed the answer button on the touchscreen. "Hello." She said gloomily.

"Well, it's nice to hear from you, too, Leaf." Her mother sarcastically said on the other end of the call.

"Sorry, mom. I was just waiting on another call and-"

"And you're disappointed that it's _me _instead." She finished her sentence for her.

"I _never _said that," Leaf retorted. "…Out loud at least." She smirked.

"Ha. Ha." Her mom faked a chuckle. "Well just for that, I'm making you do a quick run to the grocery store for me."

"Why? I have plenty of frozen meals left!" Leaf whined. "And I hope that you don't expect me to cook anything else for myself while you're away on your lame business trip."

"Of course not. I can barely trust you with a microwave." Ms. Green deadpanned.

Leaf sighed in annoyance. "I told you, directions aren't my thing! And who knew you added water to those microwave packets of macaroni and cheese before you heated them up?" She argued in defense. "Anyways, then why do you want me to go buy groceries then?"

"Surprise!" The older woman said with glee. "I'm coming home early! I'll be home by tomorrow morning and then I can cook us up a big breakfast."

"Really?" Leaf beamed. "Yes! Real food! Thank you, Arceus!" She cried tears of joy as she bowed repeatedly to an invisible figure in a nearby corner.

"I can't wait to see you either, honey." Her mother deadpanned.

"No, I missed you, too!" Leaf quickly explained. "It's just that I really missed your cooking as well!"

"Mm-hm." Ms. Green murmured in disbelief. "Well I'm gonna go now. I have to finish filling out a little bit more of paperwork if I'm going to make it home in time. I'll see you tomorrow. That house better not be a wreck!"

"Yes, mom, alright." Leaf rolled her eyes.

"And you better not have had any parties!" She warned. "I _will _find out! And no boys! Is _that _who you were waiting on a call from? Was it your _boyfriend_, _Gary Oak_?" She teased her daughter.

"No, Mom! Gosh. He isn't my freaking boyfriend!" She snapped.

"Leaf and Gary sitting in a tree," Her mom childishly tormented. "K-I-S-S-I-N-"

"UGGGGGGH!" Leaf interrupted her and screamed in annoyance. She slammed the phone down on the counter after hanging up on her. _Oh, Mom. I miss you, but you are _so _annoying! _Leaf thought to herself and then smiled. "Well, off to the store I suppose."

She skipped over to the front door and grabbed a pale green jacket off of a hook on the wall as well as a yellow tote bag with a floral design on it. With all of her bearings together, she pushed open the front door and shivered slightly at the wind.

"I'd better get home before that rain shower happens later on." She decided. "I wonder how Dawn's doing with Paul." Leaf simpered. "Oh, young love!" She playfully thought to herself aloud.

* * *

**Aha! Nice foreshadowing at the end, riiight? ;D Don't worry, Ithe Ikari begins at last in the next chappy! :o**

**Oh, and by the way, that little mention I made of how Leaf's a bad cook and she nearly started a fire with microwave mac n' cheese? Yeah, that was me...earlier this week... -_-' *embarrassment* I'm not really a directions person...not _One Direction_ nor cooking directions! :D**

**_Paul: That was the stupidest joke ever. *deadpans*_  
_Me: WTF? Get out of here! I don't even use characters in my A/N! *panics* I've been infiltrated by the enemy! *takes out random radio* Send in reinforcements! Repeat: SEND IN REINFORCEMENTS!_  
_Paul: *sighs in annoyance and walks away*_**


	3. Rainy Daze

**OMG GUESS WHAT, GUYS?  
DOUBLE UPDATE TIME! XD**

**Yes, you heard right! This is the first of the two chappys I am putting up today! Why, you may ask? Because I freaking LOVE you guys! (In a totally-friendly-not-creeper-ish-at-all kind of way...) ^^ Well, that, and because I originally wrote it as one chapter but then I was like "Meh...too many words..." c:**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon...**

* * *

A blunette sat on a couch across from a boy about her age. She stared at him with her eyebrows slightly scrunched together as if she was contemplating something very perplexing.

Meanwhile, the plum-haired boy on the sofa parallel to hers simply stared back at her with a particularly more-annoyed look than usual. He grunted slightly as the awkward silence continued.

The blunette tilted her head to the side, still in thought, when the grape-head finally snapped at her. "Dammit, Troublesome! What do you want?" He barked.

Dawn blinked for a moment at his outburst but quickly recovered. "Oh, nothing…Well…okay, I was just wondering…" She nervously took a sudden concentration towards her shoes as she kicked them together distractingly. "Paul…do you…" Paul had accumulated a curious look across his face. "Do you have any emotions?!" She finally asked.

Paul slammed his palm against his face. "IS THIS A FREAKING HOT TOPIC NOW OR SOMETHING?!" He yelled at her.

Dawn shrunk slightly in her seat. "Heehee! You do! See, I forgot how angry you get sometimes!" She smiled sheepishly.

Paul regained his composure. "Now that you're done reflecting over that, let's finish this project already." He spat coldly and walked down a hallway with his hands shoved into his pockets, expecting Dawn to eventually follow.

Dawn glared after him. She rolled her eyes when he was out of earshot. "Oh, Paul." She mumbled in annoyance. She twirled a strand of hair around her forefinger in boredom as she recalled the events that had led her to 'Paul's Evil Dungeon', as her mind referred to his home as.

"_I really don't see the point of a hamper." Dawn mumbled to herself as she brushed her hands together, signifying a difficult job was finished. "I'd much rather prefer my clothes to be scattered around my room or on the floor. I mean, that way they are so easily accessible! Now if only I could get Mom on my side…"_

"_Pi-piplup!" The blue penguin Pokémon across the room argued._

"_Yes, I _know _Mom would never go for that, Pipup." Dawn rolled her eyes. "Thank you so much for crushing my dreams." _

_Piplup put its flippers on its hips. "Piplup-lup-lup-PIP…LUP!" It exclaimed._

"_Yeah, yeah. Cry me a river. 'You have to _live _in this wasteland of a room'." She mocked what her Pokémon had just reminded her of. Dawn checked her Pokétech watch to see that it was nearly six o'clock. "I wonder when _he _will be here…" Dawn shuddered nervously. "To drive me to his torture chamber of a house!" She dramatically _

"_Pip, piplup?" Piplup asked curiously. _

"_Yes, texting Leaf did help me calm down and rationalize temporarily but…my fears are back! I don't wanna die, Piplup! I have so much to accomplish in life!" Dawn flopped onto her bed and sobbed into her pillow._

_Piplup simply face-palmed itself across the room and mumbled something about its trainer being such a drama queen. A car horn sounded outside and Dawn perked her head up as she ran over to a nearby window. She peeked through the blinds and her suspicions were true. _

"_Piplup! It's him, hide me!" Dawn frantically cried. _

_Piplup ran up to her and started to use Drill Peck against her skull._

"_Ow, ow, okay! I get it! Fine! I'll get going!" Dawn surrendered. _

_Piplup nodded its head in victory. _

"_Will you come with me?" Dawn held out its Poké Ball pleadingly with a immature pouty expression._

_Piplup's eyes widened as it shook its head intensely._

"_Wimp." Dawn stuck her tongue out and tugged on her bottom eyelid with her forefinger. She sighed while she grabbed her school tote bag and headed out the door after routinely checking herself in a mirror and slipping on a baby pink button-up jacket. _

_The sky was dark and the clouds were gray as Dawn stepped outside her house. She looked up at the sky and held her upturned palm out to feel for rain, luckily there was none yet. "Phew, I can't have that messing up my hair!" She sighed in relief. Paul beeped the horn loud again in annoyance. "I'M COMING, GRUMPY! JEEZ!" She yelled._

_The blunette skipped down the cobblestone walk in her regular pink boots with high black socks and opened the car door of a modest-looking truck with only two seats, that included the driver's and passenger's, and the traditional cargo space in the back. She buckled her seatbelt and, without even a greeting from Paul, the vehicle started to move. _

"_Nice to see you too, Pauly!" She smiled cheekily._

"_Hn." He grunted in response._

"_What's 'Hn' supposed to mean?" She asked curiously. He saw no point in replying. "Sheesh. Why are you so grumpy?" She questioned. No response was given, once again. _

_There was some silence in the truck once again until Dawn piped up something that she was debating whether to ask or not._

"_Paul, are you secretly a girl on permanent PMS or something? I mean, you could totally pass for one with that hairstyle, and if you had a more feminine figure, then I'd totally be sold." _

_Paul nearly hit the curb at her question while a vein throbbed on his forehead. The car swerved and he rapidly attempted to regain control over the vehicle while Dawn screamed one of those annoying high-pitched girl screams._

"_Geez! Drive much?" Dawn gasped for air as the car narrowly avoided spinning off the road. _

"_Maybe if you wouldn't have said something stupid then I wouldn't have almost crashed!" He glared. Paul sighed and gripped the steering wheel tightly and watched the road ahead with extreme concentration._

"_Don't blame me for your being a bad driver." Dawn mumbled. The car was silent for a minute which was pure bliss for the purple-haired boy yet very unsettling for the cheerful blunette. "So you drive?" She tried to make conversation._

_Paul sneered."If you keep asking stupid questions I'm going to hit the curb again," He hissed. "Troublesome." _

_She narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips in annoyance. "My name is DAWN." After that last remark, the ride remained silent._

Dawn finished recalling the chain of events.

"Troublesome," Paul barked from down the hall. "Are you coming or what?"

"Sure thing, handsome!" Dawn teased and giggled as she skipped down the hall after him to sound of his voice.

Although Dawn had no way of knowing, his face had reddened slightly at her last remark.

* * *

Leaf was about to step outside of the grocery store with her reusable tote bag filled to the brim with goods. "Let's see…I have the eggs at the bottom, there's some pancake mix in the middle, some bacon…bread's at the bottom next to the eggs…" She dug around in her bag to make sure she had picked up everything. "Blueberry muffins, this and that, then there are the regular groceries for non-breakfast occasions…" She mused. Leaf had gone to a great extent to pcik up all of the ingredients possible that were related to breakfast, at least to her mind. She was a bit deprived of good meals…just a little. "And of course I couldn't have possibly forgotten a giant new container of syrup! The one at home was a whole month old!" She rationalized.

She took a moment to take out her phone. "Damn Gary." She muttered in distaste, seeing no new text message responses. "And that stupid slut he's on a date with." She crossed her arms and then took a deep breath to calm herself. "Well I might as well text him once more on the off chance that he actually stopped by my house."

_From: Leaf  
To: Gary  
hey gary, i kno yur probably busy now w/ yur trashy date nd yu aren't even answering my txts but if yu actually stopped by my house or anything [highly doubtful -_-] i just wanted 2 let yu kno that i went to the store so thts y im not there.  
yu are the best partner evr. ;P_

Leaf smirked "Ohohoho, I have such a way with words." She slyly remarked as she twirled a strand of hair absently.

The brunette took a moment to look outside through the see-through glass of the automatic doors. "The sky looks so pretty!" She gushed. "It's going to be a nice walk home." She beamed. "I don't think I forgot anything so it looks like it's time to go!" She was about to take a stride when a voice interrupted her actions.

"Um, miss?" A young man called to her. He had short, spiked black hair with a dyed purple streak and green eyes. A silver lip ring was prominent on his face as he stood idly at the cash register since the store had barely any people in it. "I think you actually _did _forget something…" He sheepishly brought to attention.

Leaf gasped. "OMG! You're right! How could have I possibly forgotten…?"

"It's okay," He kindly reassured. "You're not the only one this week who almost left without-"

"I'm such an idiot!" She interrupted unintentionally as she scolded herself out loud. "No breakfast is complete without a fresh gallon of peanut butter and chocolate ice cream!" She dashed off in another direction so quickly that she left dust in her tracks that strongly resembled a stampeding herd of Tauros. The limited number of people in the store couldn't help but stare at the strange teenage girl.

She returned moments later with an additional large item in her tote bag and again proceeded to casually leave the store. The man at the register had been quite stunned at her eccentric nature but snapped out of it when he again noticed her about to exit the building. "Hmm…that's weird. I still feel like I'm forgetting something…" She was mumbling to herself.

"Miss, I think that you're thinking about how you keep forgetting to pay." He weakly called after her.

Leaf stopped immediately and paused to consider the possibility. "Wow! You're right!" She exclaimed and guiltily scurried over to the registers. "And here I thought it was the Rainbow Sprinkles…I'm so sorry!" She repeatedly bowed her head.

"Oh, no, no, it's okay, really!" He promised and waved his hands for her to stop since a couple of the customers had already been gawking at her for a while now. "No harm, no foul. Just let me ring up your items." He offered.

Leaf smiled gratefully. "Thanks," She handed him the overflowing bag and he nearly dropped it as it was passed to him.

"Wow, you sure have a large quantity of items…" He said as politely as he could muster. "Is this all for just you and your mom?"

"How do you know my mom and I?" She interrogated suspiciously.

"This supermarket isn't exactly very popular, as I'm sure you know." He offhandedly mentioned. "I know most of our regulars pretty well. And, um, your mom kind of tried to hit on me once."

Leaf's jaw dropped. She eyed the guy before her again and turned her back to him as she started muttering things privately to herself. "This guy only looks like he's nineteen or twenty…is she serious? Dammit, Mom. I'm going to yell at you when you get home…after you cook me breakfast." She planned to herself.

The whistled nonchalantly as he attempted to feign not hearing what the girl had been mumbling about.

"I'm really sorry." She finally turned back to him and said. "I hope you aren't too scarred for life." She genuinely and honestly apologized.

"That's okay, it was months ago anyway and I went to a therapist and got it all cleared up." He beamed. Leaf sweat-dropped and went to go and sulk in a corner momentarily while mumbling something about wishing her mom was normal. "So _is _all of this food for just the two of you?" He curiously brought to attention once again.

"Nope, I just like to plan ahead." Leaf explained. "See, I know my friend May is going to find out about my mom coming back from her business trip one way or another so she'll definitely want to come over and pig out. If I don't buy enough filling foods for her, well, she's been known to eat families out of house and home-"

"May Maple?" He clarified.

"Are you sure you aren't a stalker?" She backed away slightly in suspicion.

He chuckled candidly. "Yes, May Maple and her family are very well-known to all of the grocery stores in town. Thank Arceus she comes to us, about twenty percent of our entire monthly profit comes from her household alone! She's the reason we're still in business."

"Hmm…" Leaf considered. "I don't know how I didn't see that one coming…" She admitted. "Anyways, my mom has recently enforced this new rule that if May is to come over for a meal that she has to bring her own raw ingredients because we just couldn't afford her serving size." She continued.

"So then who's the rest of this food for?" The cashier questioned.

"I'm sorry, what's your name?" Leaf inquired.

"Jason, sorry, don't tell my manager I forgot my nametag today." He scratched the back of his head in dismay.

"No problem," Leaf reassured. She casually leant her elbow on the checkout counter as she already foresaw a long explanation ahead. "Well, Jason. If May comes over, which is inevitable, I have scientifically calculated a very likely eighty-five percent chance that my other friend, Dawn, will hear about it and think of it as a social outing, which she would never miss. She'd invite our last addition, Misty, of our little quartet of girlfriends, just to complete the set so that no one feels left out. Believe me; it happens all of the time." She knowingly stated.

Jason nodded peculiarly as he listened to Leaf's somewhat scientific formula that she already had figured out. He took food items out of her bag to scan for the price as he listened intently.

"No matter how hard we try to keep this little breakfast get-together a secret from our other friend, Ash, he somehow finds out-"

"Ash Ketchum?" Jason interjected.

"Yes." Leaf replied, less stunned this time around.

"Seventeen percent of our stores profit." He shared.

"I always wondered how this little place stayed in business…" Leaf deadpanned.

He smiled genuinely. "Continue, then."

"Right," Leaf got back on track. "As I was saying, my theory for Ash and May is that the two of them have somehow developed a rare sixth sense in which they know whenever there will be events with lots of food. The details, however, are a bit foggy so it's still only a theory." She waved the thought off. "Anyways, if Ash if going to go, he'll probably mention it to our _other _friend, Drew. Drew will probably only go to pick on May and call her fat and such." Leaf simplified. "Oh, and on a side note, Ash's mom packs him his own raw ingredients in a lunch box for my mom to cook up for his meal because, again, he could easily eat us out of house and home as well."

"Very interesting," Jason added.

Leaf smiled softly to herself and looked down at her shoes. "There's still more. I'm positive that Gary is bound to come. We actually do hang out once and a while when he's not with one of his little girl toys. Aside from actually having a home cooked meal after like a week of frozen TV dinners, finally getting a chance to spend time with him is what I'm most excited about."

The older male grinned at how affectionately she talked of this boy. He noted the way that she would gently smile when she talked about him and how she didn't make eye contact, but gazed at the floor as if she was picturing something else in her mind.

"It seems like you're very fond of that boy," He innocently mentioned.

Leaf immediately snapped out of her little trance and stared menacingly at the accused. He tensed as he noticed a newfound malevolent glint in her eyes. "You'd better watch yourself, Jason…I bought a pound of butter…and we wouldn't want anyone to get hurt, now would we?" Her dark side seemed to tower over him as he shrunk slightly in fear.

"Of course not, miss." He waved his hands up in defense. "I-I mean, I shouldn't have jumped to any conclusions that you liked him or anything, I-" He attempted to explain himself.

Leaf smirked in a friendlier manner and sighed. "It's alright." She decided. "My prediction, which is ninety-eight percent likely in this case, is that when he comes over he'll probably just try to hit on me, I'll shoot him down because of the player he is, and then he'll go find another slut to date later in the week." She forecasted. "Oh, and there's one more person who'll be there, Paul. Through all of my extensive research into this calculation, I've never been able to figure out how exactly he does end up there…but he usually just stands in a corner and acts all grumpy and emo." Leaf realized. "That's one mystery that I am still unable to solve…"

"Ah, now I can see why you bought all of this." He reasoned as he was just finishing repacking the food items into Leaf's bag.

"Yep! Oh, and thanks for stopping me from almost accidentally shoplifting! That wouldn't have gone over so well with my mom." She bowed her head and showed gratitude.

"Any day!" He reconsidered his statement. "Actually, try not to do it again."

Leaf beamed. "Sure thing!" Her phone buzzed in her back pocket and she quickly went to grab it. She checked the cellular device, full of hope, but then all was lost. "UGGGGGHH!" She groaned. "It's just Dawn freaking out. Why the hell isn't Gary answering any of my texts or calls?!" She slammed her phone down on the checkout counter in frustration, earning many odd glances from the surrounding shoppers.

"Is there a problem?" Jason asked in concern.

"Oh, nothing. Gary just hasn't texted me back in forever since he's too busy with his cheap, tacky date." She huffed in annoyance.

The cashier smiled sympathetically. "Well, he's missing out. You made _my_ day today." He consoled. "You're much more interesting to talk to than most of our century-old customers." He exaggerated slightly but cupped a hand over the side of his face as to not let any of them overhear.

"Thanks," Leaf smiled. "I might have to shop here for my usual frozen meals more often." She giggled slightly. She unconsciously glanced to her left where there were clear windows lining the front of the store. "OMG WTF HAPPENED TO THE WEATHER? The sky was so pretty before…" She whined.

Jason took notice of the sudden dark gray clouds that had accumulated outside. "That is a pretty quick change…you should probably wait here until those clouds pass. That doesn't look like the 'light rain' that the weatherman promised."

"Gah! I can't!" Leaf slapped her palm to her face in aggravation. "I forgot to close the windows, our carpet will be ruined if I don't get home in time!"

"But, you can't walk home like that when it's about to-"

Leaf grabbed her bag off of the counter and left the proper number of twenty dollar bills in its place. "Thanks a bunch for your help, Jason! Oh, and keep the change!" She scurried towards the exit. "Oh, and my name's Leaf by the way!" She turned around once more to wave and then proceeded to the double doors.

Jason sighed in exasperation knowing that there was no chance of stopping her. "Well at least she has her cell phone in case anything bad-" He cut himself off as he stared at the foreign object on his checkout counter. He recalled the girl, Leaf, slamming her phone down against the countertop in frustration, and there is still laid. "Shit." He cussed bluntly.

* * *

***Sigh* My poor little innocent OC had to deal with Leaf Green...I pity him.  
**

**By the way; this Sunday I will be releasing the first chapter of a longfic story idea that I've had bouncing around in my head for far too long! XD I just thought that you wouldn't mind hearing me advertise the hell out of it here since it's Leafgreen/Oldrival, Contest, Poké, and Ikarishipping! So...yeah. Maybe you can check it out once it's up if you guys have a chance. :p**

**As always, thanks for the reviews~! :)**


	4. And the Storm Begins

**And here we are with part 2 of my double update! :D  
I don't really have anything else to say soo...I shall shut up now and let you read. ^^**

**Disclaimer: Nope, I _still_ don't own Pokémon. **

* * *

May yawned loudly and stretched her arms. "Whew. That was a lot of hard work!" She exclaimed.

"You're telling me. _I _was the one who had to type it all." Drew deadpanned. He held one arm in his other and wondered how long it would be sore. "How many pages did we get?"

May glanced at the computer screen while Drew slammed his head against the desk in exhaustion. "Hm…one, two, three, four…waaahh too much counting." May decided.

"That should be enough then." He tiredly stated.

A phone in the room chirped loudly.

"Are you gonna get that?" May questioned.

"My arms hurt too much. It's probably just the chefs asking about dinner but I'll just call them back when I regain movement in my wrists." He explained.

"DINNER? ANSWER THEM _RIGHT NOW, _DREW HAYDEN!" May demanded.

Before Drew had a chance to object, the phone stopped ringing.

"Oh well THAT'S JUST GREAT!" She screamed. "WHY DIDN'T YOU ANSWER? DO YOU _WANT_ ME TO _DIE_?"

Drew blinked in surprise. "You just had five giant servings of ramen a few hours ago." He pointed out. He backed his chair away, slightly nervous.

"Yes, an entire two and a half hours ago! It's already six o'clock now!" May whined. She fell back onto the floor and clutched her stomach, appearing to be writhing in agony. "THE PAIN!" Drew just shook his head in dismay.

Three brief knocks sounded against the bedroom door.

"Come in." Drew sighed.

"Good evening, young master Drew. Is everything alright?" The same maid from the front entrance opened the door and questioned. "You didn't answer your phone when we paged you."

"Yeah, I'm fine." He answered casually. "Is there something you needed to tell me?"

"Yes, you see, there was a severe thunderstorm/flood warning and your parents approved all of the staff here to take our leave for the day so that we can make it home safely." She explained.

"What?!" May exclaimed. "The news said it was just a light shower!" She got up, somehow cured from starving to death earlier, and looked out the window across the room. "Oooh…that doesn't look too good. Stupid weather people." She observed the sky.

"Did the staff leave already?" Drew asked quickly.

"Yes, sir, they're all driving out now…" She clarified.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Drew flung his head back and screamed in anguish.

"What's wrong?" May questioned curiously.

"Idiot, this means you don't have a ride home and that I have to put up with you until who-knows-when." He said glumly.

May took a moment to process the situation. "AAAAHHHHHHH!" She cried out in terror. "No, no, no! I can't survive this! Maybe my parents can come and get me-"

"You want them to crash their car? It's a severe thunderstorm; my staff doesn't just up and leave over a tiny little rainfall." He flicked his hair.

May shuffled closer towards Drew. "Let's get the maid to do it." She mumbled in a hushed tone.

"Not a bad idea…" Drew confessed. He cleared his throat. "Excuse me, do you think you could drive our guest home safely before your shift is over?"

The maid in the doorway blinked. "I'm terribly sorry, master Drew, but I'm barely going to make it to my own home in time, I simply cannot make another stop…"

Drew and May glanced at each other and nodded with determined evil glints in their eyes. Without another word, they both abruptly stood up and walked towards the maid.

"Um, sir?" The maid slowly backed away. "Sir?" She asked again frantically.

Drew ignored her as he and May closed in on her.

"I-I'm just going to take my leave now, s-sir!" She decided and hurriedly ran off down a hallway, presumably towards the front exit.

"Let's go." Drew ordered.

"You got it." May nodded in agreement

The two teens began to sprint after that poor maid down the long hallway.

* * *

"Oh, Gary." A girl with long blond hair purred. "You look so sexy in that shirt." She was wearing an extremely large amount of makeup that didn't even match her olive-colored eyes. Her dress barely reached mid-thigh at the bottom and really was supposed to be accompanied by an undershirt which she had clearly decided against since her breasts were practically falling out. It was an annoying fuchsia in color that didn't match her baby blue pumps well at all.

"Why, thank you." Gary raised an eyebrow in an almost seductive manner. "You're looking pretty hot yourself." He complimented.

"You're way too cute to be this sweet!" She squealed in an annoying voice. "My friends were _so _jealous when they heard that I was going on a date with such a stud."

"Are they hot? What are their names?" Gary caught himself and coughed in a weak effort to conceal his inappropriate questions. "I mean…is that so?" He regained his overconfident composure.

"Of course! As _if _you didn't see that coming. You probably just wanted to hear it over again for yourself, right?" She teased playfully and laughed a maddening giggle. Other people sitting around them stared for a moment in annoyance.

Gary had taken another one of his temporarily, meaningless girl toys to a fancy restaurant on the outskirts of town. They were currently waiting for their individual meals to arrive and were conversing in the meantime.

"So, Gary, is it really true that you're the famous Samuel Oak's grandson and that you're studying under him to become a Pokémon Professor?" She asked with way too much enthusiasm.

Gary had pulled his phone out of his pocket and was trying to finally get a chance to check his messages.

"Gary! For the third time, you aren't checking your _phone _on our _date_. It's rude, you know." She smirked coyly as she reached across the table and took his free hand in her own two, massaging it abnormally.

"Listen, I really have to check it. It went off like ten times, it could be an emergency. Just give me _one _minute." He explained pleadingly.

"But we're on a _date_!" She refused.

He snatched his hand back from her adamantly so that he could scroll through his messages. His eyes widened faintly when he noticed that he had two missed calls and several text messages from Leaf. "She's probably just nagging me about the project…" He mumbled to himself.

"Who sent you so many texts, _Gary_?" The blonde persisted. She hissed his name in infuriation.

"Oh, just my sister, Daisy." He lied.

His date chuckled quite darkly. "Oh, Gary. Don't fib to me, you said something about that project that you were assigned in Professor Juniper's class, right?"

"How would you know that when I didn't even tell you...?" He cautiously questioned with an eyebrow raised questionably.

"That's not important." She feigned a cheerful attitude. Under her false appearance she was surrounded by a looming aura engulfed in jealousy. "So you were getting several text messages and phone calls from your project partner; Leaf Green? Average height with long brown hair and brown eyes, friends since you were little?" She clarified.

Gary's mouth hung open. "That's…um…really creepy that you'd know all of that." He slumped in his chair to be as far away from the girl across the round table as possible.

"Is it wrong that I do my research?" She batted fake eyelashes. "Besides, my research concludes that she isn't so attractive. Well, at least not as attractive as I am. See how much we have in common? We both are experts at researching." She flicked a strand of hair over her shoulder. She waited for a response but then noticed her date wasn't even paying attention as he was going through his missed text messages.

"Heh, heh," Gary chuckled inwardly.

"What's so funny?" She demanded.

"Nothing," Gary waved her off. "Leafy just has such a way with words." He mysteriously said as he stared straight into her eyes.

"Wh-What do you mean? IS SHE TALKING ABOUT _ME_?" The blonde slammed her fist against the table.

"I never said that." He was able to honestly say.

She crossed her arms. "Didn't you just hear what I said before?"

"Hm?" He asked absently as he flipped through the last few text messages from Leaf.

"I said that-"

"Shit!" Gary cussed. His date looked at him peculiarly. "What time is it?"

"It's rude to say things like that on a _date _you know." She hissed.

Gary rolled his eyes and checked his watch instead. "Shit, shit, shit, shit!" He swore to himself under his breath. "Hopefully the weather isn't too bad-" A loud sounding of thunder interrupted his sentence as lightning cascaded from the clouds and flashed in through the windows shortly after, causing all of the dinner guests at the restaurant great alarm.

Gary stood up abruptly and roughly grabbed his coast off of his chair while he slipped it on. "I have to go. Tell the waiter to cancel my order when he gets back." He went to make an exit.

"WAIT!" The slutty blonde stood up and clutched his wrist. "_Why _are you leaving our date?!" She insisted on an answer. By now the two had caused a scene as all pairs of eyes in the room were staring on them.

"Sir," A waitress came up and approached Gary. "We are advising all of our guests to stay here and wait for the storm to pass. It's too dangerous for anyone to be driving right now." She spoke professionally.

Gary gritted his teeth as he glanced from his date to the waitress and then to the eyes watching them. He smirked. "Sorry, but no can do. I've got something important to do-"

"Gary!" His date made one last devious attempt to change his actions. "What I said before, about Leaf when you weren't paying attention, you know that she isn't attractive. She'll _never _be as good as _me_. Forget about her." She persuaded.

Gary paused as his eyes bore furiously into hers. "Newsflash, Ashley. Everything you just said is _not_ true." He turned away from her towards the exit with one last remark. "The girl of my dreams is in some serious trouble." He said loud enough for the entire restaurant to hear. "And her name is Leaf Green."

After that last line he sprinted out of there as quickly as he could, leaving his date with her mouth agape and the other guests silent.

"My name is Louise!" She screeched after him, though she was too late for him to even hear, let alone care.

* * *

"AAAAAARRGHHHH!" Misty yelled in frustration. "I'M GOING TO _KILL _THOSE THREE WHEN I GET HOME!"

Currently, the redhead was running frantically through an extreme thunderstorm. Rain was pouring rapidly from the clouds, which had turned a significantly dark shade of gray. The thunder was loud and it occurred often while lightning was a bit less common, but when it did strike, it lit up Misty's entire surroundings and temporarily blinded her.

"It's raining Meowths and Houndooms for crying out loud! And those stupid sisters of mine send me out like this knowing that this would happen?!" She complained to no one in particular. Misty recalled just what they had said that should have tipped her off.

_"Okay, so all you have to do is go to the pool and pick up our pool bag that we left there on accident." Violet smirked._

_Misty raised an eyebrow in distrust. "Why can't you just go back and get it? It's not that far of a walk and besides, you can drive a car."_

_"Well 'cause our car doesn't have a roof-" Lily jabbed her with her elbow without Misty noticing. "Erm, I mean we have…manicure appointments." Violet suspiciously responded._

Misty face-palmed herself. "Why the hell didn't I see that coming!?" Somehow, even in the rain and outdoor area that she was in, she managed to find a corner to sulk in with a depressed aura about her. "I just wanted chicken, mashed potatoes, and macaroni and cheese…I don't ask for much, Arceus, why must you deprive this of me, too?!"

She shook off her momentarily depression and decided that she may as well devise a plan. She had already grabbed her sister's pool bag from the pool…but where to now?

"I can't go home _now_!" Misty whined. "The house is too far, I'll freeze to death before I make it there." She checked her surroundings, trying to familiarize herself with wherever she had run off to in her panicked state. "Well…I _am _right by Ash's house." Misty gulped and then turned to the sky. "WHY, ARCEUS?! WHY?" She protested as she ran off in the direction of Ash's house.

A few loud bangs sounded against the door of Ketchum residence. Delia and her son turned to the sound curiously.

"I wonder who that might be," Mrs. Ketchum wondered. "It's storming terribly outside." She pointed out.

Ash nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I wonder who it is, too." He was currently sitting on a couch with his schoolwork in hand and Pikachu at his side.

"I _really _wonder who it might be." Delia repeated oddly. "I don't have a clue as to who would show up in this situation."

"I know, right?" Ash agreed. "Me, too!" He smiled cheekily.

Pikachu sweat-dropped and grumbled something incoherent before it finally spoke up. "PI-PIKA PIKAH PIKACHUU!" It yelled harshly at the two humans in the room and proceeded to hit Ash with the usual Thundershock.

"Ow…" Ash fell to his side, singed and twitching. "Pikachu…why'd you do that, buddy?"

Pikachu folded its arms and shook its head in disappointment at his trainer's stupidity.

"I think that Pikachu wants us to 'Shut up already and get the darn door'." Delia translated. "That way, we would 'know who was there and we could stop discussing it while that person is standing out in the rain at this very moment'."

"Pikachu!" Ash exclaimed. "You're a genius!" He hugged his favorite Pokémon tightly.

Pikachu mumbled something about Ash needing to 'get the hell off of it' and when that had no effect, it simply sent another electric attack towards the raven-haired boy.

Delia took the moment to finally open the door to find a shivering redhead outside in the rain. "Ooh! It's Misty!" She cheered. "Come in here, quickly, honey!" She warmly greeted. She tugged the young girl inside as Misty stumbled through the doorway.

"Misty, did you come all of the way here just to see me?" Ash asked densely while his eyes twinkled, clearly flattered.

Misty sweat-dropped. "N-No." She replied between shivers. "I-It's because of my stupid sisters." She sneezed. Ash walked off somewhere down a hallway.

"Nevermind that," Mrs. Ketchum worried. "We need to get you into some decent clothes." She took notice of her outfit which had been completely soaked through, even her light jacket.

"Here, Misty!" Ash returned. He was grinning ear to ear. "I brought you a towel to dry off with!" He held out a big blue towel for her to take. "I just got it from the linen closet, I made sure not to get a pink one because I know that you don't like that color." He remembered.

Misty smiled genuinely. "Thanks, Ash. That's so sweet." She took the towel and draped it over her shoulders to calm her chills. She had to admit, he could be extremely dense at times, but Ash was an amazing friend.

Delia smiled. "Very good, Ash!" She rewarded him with a pat on the head. "See, my son has his moments, doesn't he?" She brightened. Misty chuckled and nodded in agreement. "Now, let's get you warmed up and a change of clothes."

"Thanks," Misty gratefully said. Mrs. Ketchum started to tow her up a staircase when she noticed Ash following them.

"I'll come and help!" He proclaimed, eager to help.

Misty, Delia, and even Pikachu face-palmed at his lack of common sense.

"NO!" Ash's mother and Misty both yelled at him in synchronization. Ash, who had already begun to follow them up the stairs tumbled back down them from the ferocity in their voices. He laid at the foot of the stairs when Pikachu approached him with its arms folded.

"It's okay, Pikachu! I'm fine, but thanks for worrying about me!" Ash wrongly assumed.

Pikachu sighed heavily and sent a Thunderbolt attack his way.

From the top of the stairs, Misty and Delia sweat-dropped. "Pikachu needs to stop zapping away the few brain cells he has left…" Misty sighed.

* * *

**And...finish!**

**As always, thanks for the reviews && I love you guys in a totally-not-creeper-ish-just-friendly way. :D**


	5. Stuck with You?

**awkward silence* o.O**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon.**

* * *

"I…AM…BORED!" Dawn let out a groan in complaint. Currently, she was in what appeared to be the office of the big, bad Paul Shinji's humble abode. The place in its entirety was an average small home, much to Dawn's surprise. From the outside, it may have _seemed _normal, but she was certain that there was some sort of secret passageway hidden around _somewhere _that would lead her to a secret torture chamber…there just _had _to be.

Dawn was pondering these thoughts when Paul actually decided to answer. "Would you just shut up and research Ice-types, Troublesome?" Paul said in monotone.

Dawn let out a heavy sigh as she decided instead to invest her time in spinning around on the desk chair with wheels that she was sat in. The room itself wasn't too big, maybe 10x10ft, and there were two desks with computers that took up some space in addition to that. Paul was sat in the only other spinning chair scribbling down some notes on a lined piece of paper from off of the computer monitor, trying his very best not to snap at Dawn.

Soon she had decided that simply spinning around in the desk chair was rather boring. To add some enjoyment to it, she started spinning and kicking off of the walls of the room to spiral across the hardwood floor. She let out the occasional "Weeeeee!" as she did so, while Paul attempted to suppress his desire to scream in her face. He was failing.

His writing was shaky, probably because of the extreme levels of anger that he was climbing to in his mind, and he held a tight grip against the pen in his hand, the tension nearly snapping it to pieces. A vein was popping out of his forehead and his brows were knitted tightly together in irritation.

Meanwhile, Dawn had started to get quite dizzy and was beginning to lose control of where she was spinning off to. She had also built up a good amount of momentum as she accelerated towards Paul's chair on accident, knocking over both of their chairs and sending the two of them flying out of them. The next thing she knew, Dawn was laying straight on top of the plum-haired boy under her.

"T-T-Troublesome! G-Get off me! Now!" Paul demanded shakily. Luckily, Dawn hadn't paid much attention to his tone of voice since she seemed to still be a bit 'out of it'.

She took a moment to rub her head and refocus her vision because of the wooziness that spiraling around so much had left her with. It was then that she took notice of Paul's current position.

"Paul, you pervert! What are you laying under me?" Dawn interrogated, her face inches from his. "We are just study partners!"

The grumpy male mentally face-palmed himself since his arms were restricted at the moment. "Dammit! YOU fell on ME, Troublesome!" he gritted his teeth, stifling the blush of embarrassment that threatened to taint his cheeks.

"Oh, it _that _you're best excuse?" Dawn propped her elbows up on the floor on either side of his face. She spoke with a hint of flirtatious taunt in her voice, and that was just because of her nature. She tended to be somewhat of a flirt at school. Not as bad as Gary, of course, but still a tease. She was enjoying the light tint on his cheeks and decided that it was fascinating how _Paul _was embarrassed, a rare sight indeed.

Paul managed to regain his cold, detached composure with more than an obvious hint of anger bubbling in him. "GET. OFF. ME. NOW." he yelled.

Dawn let out a huff and rolled off to one of his sides before standing up. She offered him a hand to help him up but he simply ignored it as he got up on his own and glared at her. "Troublesome, what have you even gotten done?"

She peered past him to his sheet of paper which had lots of dark blue writing over it and then sheepishly glanced to her own. It had less than twenty words in girly pink ink, and the words were all just a shopping list. "Um…well you know, this and that." she sheepishly replied.

Paul sat down in his chair once again after standing it on its legs. "Let me see it."

Dawn tensed. "How about I show you it in five minutes?" she offered.

"We've been sitting here for thirty minutes." he pointed out.

"So?"

"Give me the paper."

Reluctantly, Dawn picked up her 'notes' and handed them over to Paul. As he scanned over the paper, the blue pen in his hand was trembling. It finally snapped under the immense pressure of Paul's fist, spluttering navy-colored ink all over his clenched hand.

"OMG! _PLEASE _don't send me to your secret torture chamber!" Dawn pleaded in a whiney voice.

"SHUT UP, TROUBLESOME! I TOLD YOU EARLIER I DON'T HAVE A DAMN TORTURE CHAMBER!" he bellowed and then sighed in annoyance. "I'm going to the bathroom to wash my hands. Do something productive." he muttered as he stalked out of the room. The bathroom was a fair distance across the house and he planned to take his time scrubbing his palms free of the ink. That would give her enough time to actually get _something _done, or at least he hoped.

* * *

Gary had frantically called Leaf's house phone at least five times. Each time, it would ring several times and he would cuss under his breath for her to "pick up, dammit," though it didn't really solve anything.

Rain pounded down against the car's windows, giving the windshield wipers quite a workout.

"Damn Leafy," Gary muttered lightly. "Not picking up her damn house phone."

He thought over the situation carefully. He had already tried her house phone, quite a few times at that. The supermarket was the closest lead to his current destination. As he realized this, he sharply turned a corner and headed off in that direction. While doing so, he realized something terribly obvious.

"Heh, heh," he chuckled sheepishly to himself. "Maybe I should try her cell phone…" he finally grasped. Tugging his phone out from his pocket, he hurriedly dialed the number with one hand and then tucked the phone against his shoulder and cheek.

_Ring…ring…ring…_

The ringing ceased. "Hello?" asked a deep voice.

"Leafy?" Gary raised an eyebrow. "Do you have a cold or something?"

"This is Jason," the male on the other end of the line deadpanned. "Anyways, if you're looking for Leaf then she-"

"Who the hell is _Jason_?" Gary demanded with a hint of jealousy.

"Um…I'm a grocery store clerk?" he awkwardly replied.

"So…she's going out with a grocery store clerk instead of the amazing _Gary Oak_?!" he ranted to no one in particular.

"I'm not her boyfriend!" Jason quickly defended. "And could you even blame her if I was? I mean, you go out with a new girl every couple of days."

"How the hell would you know that?" Gary questioned. He then haughtily smirked. "I guess I'm just so famous that even guys are starting to gossip about me."

"Get over yourself…" Jason mumbled under his breath. "I'm not _gossiping _about you it's just that-"

"Hmm…" Gary continued to ponder the idea. "Not only do I have fangirls, but now I have _fanboys_…Interesting," He considered the idea. "I'm sorry, Jason. But I just _cannot_ go that way."

"I'M NOT INTERESTED IN YOU!" Jason finally yelled into the phone. Gary blinked. "And I'm not dating Leaf. She stopped by-"

"Oh, so she's safe there, right?" Gary asked, a huge weight hypothetically beginning to lift from his shoulders.

"Dude, you would know all of this sooner if you'd quit cutting me off," he pointed out. "She stopped by earlier and left her phone at my counter. I told her not to go walking home in this weather but she wouldn't listen."

"That sounds like Leaf, alright," Gary muttered. "Idiot," he then registered just what that meant. "Shit! Now she's somewhere between the supermarket and her house! And she's a prideful _idiot_! This isn't good…"

"No shit, Sherlock," Jason muttered.

"Quick, you've gotta tell me when exactly what time she left that store!" Gary explained.

"She just left about…" the line went dead.

"Jason? JASON? Hellooo?" Gary whined into the phone. Loud crashes of thunder sounded around him and a lightning bolt lit up the sky. "Dammit. Lost the stupid signal."

That meant she could be _anywhere _along the route from her house to the store.

* * *

Delia eyed the redhead once up and down. She stroked her chin and finally nodded. "Well, I'm sorry it's all that we have," She smiled warmly. "But you're just not quite old enough to fill out any of my shirts properly."

Misty sweat-dropped. _She just called me flat-chested…_

Misty was wearing one of Ash's black t-shirts from when he was around ten. She doubted that it fit him anymore, but she was still petite enough to wear it without nearly suffocating. She also had on a pair of gray basketball shorts, presumably from his ten-year-old year as well. She subconsciously gave the shirt a sniff.

"Oh, don't worry about that!" Mrs. Ketchum immediately reassured. "It's true that Ash isn't generally a fan of washing his clothes, but that shirt's been washed and kept with his old clothes that don't fit him anymore, the same goes for the shorts."

"Oh, okay. Thanks so much, Mrs. Ketchum," Misty smiled courteously.

"Mom! Why can't I come up?" Ash called from the bottom of the stairs. His mom and friend were in the hallway upstairs and he hadn't the slightest clue as to why they wouldn't let him come up and help Misty.

The two females upstairs sighed. Delia shut the linen closet that they were going through and called down to her son. "Alright, honey. You can come up _now_."

Ash grinned ear to ear and skipped up the steps with Pikachu perched on his shoulder. Unfortunately, the raven-haired male had discovered the hard way that skipping up steps wasn't the wisest thing to do. He lost his footing and tumbled all of the way back down, again.

Upon hearing the crash, Misty ran to the top of the stairs, trailed by Delia who was quite used to this after many years.

"Ash!" Misty called down worriedly to the boy who laid limply at the foot of the stairs. "Ash! Are you okay?"

Ash rubbed his head and soon came around to his senses. "M-Mist?" His vision doubled before finally being able to have a clear view of the cerulean eyes watching him anxiously from upstairs. "Misty…" He noticed her outfit. "You look…"

Misty blushed faintly as she watched him eyeing the t-shirt she was wearing. It hugged her much more tightly than her regular tomboy clothes.

"…emo."

The redhead erupted with her face flaring up crimson, but not for any good reasons. "GEE, THANKS! IT'S YOUR STUPID BLACK SHIRT! HOW DARE YOU CALL ME _EMO_!" she had swiftly appeared next to the already bare-conscious boy and proceeded to whack him over the head a few times with her mallet.

"Eh heh…" Delia sheepishly chuckled from the top of the stairs.

_Several minutes later…_

"I'm really sorry that I knocked out your son…" Misty frowned. Her and Delia were sat on either side Ash on the sofa in the living room.

"Oh, don't worry about it," Mrs. Ketchum smiled sincerely. "It happens all of the time!"

The two females were holding Ash up just to keep him from falling forward off of the couch. His head was hung forward as they did so.

"Should we take him to the hospital?" Misty wondered aloud.

"Nah," Delia waved the idea off. "They're getting sick of seeing him. Plus, there's no way I could drive in this weather."

Misty nodded. "True…"

"He should be fine though!" the mother assured. "Like I said, this happens more often than you'd expect! I used to have a toddler gate at the foot of the stairs to keep him out, but his room is up there so it didn't work out very well. Although the toddler gate served its purpose perfectly when it _was _set up!" the woman mused.

"How old was he when you did that?" Misty questioned innocently.

"It was just last week." Mrs. Ketchum replied shamelessly.

Misty resisted the urge to sweat-drop since she was half of the force that kept Ash from falling face first into the floor. Pikachu, she noticed, had scampered off somewhere. It was probably enjoying its free time away from its idiotic trainer.

Speaking of its idiot trainer, Ash suddenly began to stir in his sleep. "Where…where is the ice cream man?"

Misty and Delia raised a curious eyebrow.

"Ash, sweetie!" Delia chirped. "You're in your home, Misty just knocked you out with her mallet, remember?"

"Misty knocks me out with her mallet all of the time…" he grumbled.

Misty whistled innocently while taking up a sudden interest in the blank wall to her left.

"Yes, but this time it was because you called her 'emo'," she specified.

"Oh, yeah…I remember that." He blinked his eyes open and looked around until coming across said redhead. "It's Emo Misty!" He cheered, fully conscious. Delia caught the mallet that Misty had abruptly brought out to take a swing with just in the nick of time.

"Please don't knock out my son again," she sheepishly requested.

Misty frowned in annoyance but put her mallet back to wherever it was that she kept it.

"Misty! We should have a battle!" Ash ecstatically suggested.

"We can't do that, Ash. It's raining outside, remember?" Misty deadpanned. "Plus, I didn't even bring my Pokémon with me."

"Oh, yeah…" Ash realized.

A hypothetical light bulb clicked over Misty's head. "I know!" Ash perked up while she spoke. "Let's work on our project from Professor Juniper!" she tried to sell the idea as if she was talking to a three-year-old with the most cheery, bubbly voice she could muster.

Ash frowned. "That doesn't sound like fun."

"Well, er, it'll be lots of fun!" Misty encouraged. "See, you get to learn a whole bunch about a Pokémon type that you didn't know before! Then, when you _do _get a chance to battle, you'll be a lot…better…maybe…" Misty tried to convince, though those were the most cliché reasons that she could think of. She doubted that even Ash would buy that act.

"Awesome! Sounds like fun!" Ash beamed. He grabbed Misty by the hand and dashed off towards the stairs. She blushed slightly and cursed herself for doing so.

"ASH!" Delia called. Her son stopped abruptly. "Walk _carefully _up the stairs."

Ash nodded happily. "Okay, Mom!"

Delia sighed and headed off to the kitchen to finish washing the dishes. Her Mime Jr. immediately appeared, happy to help out with the chore.

"I only dropped him on his head a _few _times when he was a baby," she mumbled as she dried a plate.

Mimey eyed her suspiciously.

"Well…maybe more than a _few_…" she admitted at last.

* * *

The door slammed in May's and Drew's faces as the maid escaped to her car.

"Dammit!" Drew cursed in annoyance. May wasn't exactly pleased either. "This is all your fault!" he blamed.

May blinked. "This is _my _fault?" she questioned with attitude. She placed her hands on her hips and furrowed her eyebrows in irritation. "How is this _my _fault? _You're _the one who dragged me to your stupid house in the first place!"

"Only to get our project done and over with so I didn't have to see you on the weekend!" he shot back. "And besides, I wasn't talking about that! I mean about catching the damn maid! She was our last chance for you having a ride home and getting the hell out of here!"

"Well _you're the_ one who had to stop in front of that mirror upstairs in the hallway to check your damn hair!" May retorted.

"That barely took a moment-"

"It took a _minute_!" she corrected.

"Well that was an important task!" Drew flicked his hair. "And at least _I _didn't get _'lost'_!"

"It's not my fault that you're house is as big as a-"

"_And _you _conveniently_ managed to get lost IN THE KITCHEN," he reminded.

May didn't respond.

"Exactly," The green-haired male smirked, knowing that she couldn't possibly retort.

May huffed. "Listen, Drew. Arguing isn't going to help us. Maybe if I jog, I can beat the storm and get home in time-"

"You'll never make it," he sighed in hopelessness. As if to prove his point, a loud rumble filled the room. May looked down at her stomach curiously. "It's the _thunder_, idiot," Drew mumbled in dismay.

May crossed her arms. "Well then, I guess you're just stuck with me then," she stuck out her tongue. "So what should we do now?"

Drew shrugged, accepting his miserable situation.

"I know!" May declared. Drew didn't have to think twice about what she could possibly have in mind. "To the kitchen!" she linked her arm with his and dragged him off towards a certain direction.

His cheeks turned scarlet for a moment at her contact but, luckily, she was far too dense to notice. Plus, her mind was set on food.

About a minute later, the duo had arrived in the kitchen without any trouble. Drew raised an eyebrow at this. "June, how in hell did you know where our kitchen was when you can't even navigate through the halls upstairs?"

"My…name…is…May," she gritted her teeth in annoyance. Drew merely shrugged. "Anyways, I can sense food easily anywhere and at anytime," She bragged. "This reminds me, I sense a large amount of food at Leaf's house tomorrow morning…" she realized.

Drew blinked. "Okay then," he shuddered slightly. This little 'gift' of hers was more than unsettling in his eyes. _Hmm… I'll probably end up going to that event just to tease her… _He mentally planned.

May had decided to help herself as she dug around in the oversized, stainless steel fridge before her. She eventually pulled out a large tub of Neapolitan ice cream and an oversized spoon. Not bothering to transfer it into a bowl, she ripped off the lid and sprayed a plentiful amount of whipped cream inside along with chocolate syrup and sprinkles. "It still looks incomplete…" May frowned. "Aha!" she realized. She grabbed a ripe cherry from a compartment in the fridge and placed it neatly on top of the stack of sugary toppings.

"Done yet?" Drew tapped his foot impatiently while standing by and watching the annoying procedure.

May stroked her chin, still feeling incomplete. Finally, she simply took about a dozen more cherries and dumped them onto the pile of sweets. If anyone but Drew or her friends would have observed this, they would have stared at her as though she was mad. Instead, Drew simply sighed in disappointment at her poor eating habits.

With difficulty, May picked up the large container and kicked the fridge door shut with her foot. She then stumbled towards the dining room with Drew following behind with his hands shoved in his pockets.

* * *

Paul returned to the office room with little hope of Dawn doing anything productive in his absence, but still expected something from her nonetheless. At the very least, perhaps she had written a pointless fact or piece of trivia, anything, really.

"Paul!" Dawn greeted cheerfully as he returned. "Look at all I got done!" the blunette smiled widely and held up her piece of paper. On it was a sketch of a fancy-looking dress with several frills and bows. "I think it'll look great on me in my next contest, what do you think?"

The purple-haired male gritted his teeth. "Did you do _anything _useful while I was gone?" he snapped.

Dawn held up her paper once again. "Duh!" she said obviously.

Paul simply face-palmed in frustration. _Working with Troublesome isn't going to be easy…_

* * *

**Meh...not a very eventful chappy, I know :/  
The next one shall be better! :D**

**Thanks for reviews c:  
3  
**


	6. Thundery Complications

**Hello~! c:**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon.**

* * *

"Paaaaaauuulll?" Dawn whined innocently. She waved a hand in front of his face while the prune-head simply continued to glare ahead at the wall ahead of him. Dawn frowned. "You look like you're in pain…was it my drawing? I'm sorry…" she looked down at her shoes in shame.

Paul blinked. _She actually comprehends what she did wrong?_

"If you're that upset, I'll start sketching a fashionable outfit for you right away!" Dawn grinned. "What are your measurements?" He took a moment to face-palm himself for actually having hope. While doing so, he hadn't even noticed that Dawn had already pulled out a tape measure and was nearly strangling his neck with it.

"DAMMIT, TROUBLESOME! ARE YOU TRYING TO CHOKE ME?" he yelled.

"Hold still or I won't get the right measurement!" Dawn warned to a struggling Paul. Just then, a man with cold dark eyes and a deep purple ponytail appeared in the doorway. "Oh! Hey, Reggie!" Dawn cheerfully greeted while she tightened the measuring tape around Paul's neck.

"Hey, Dawn!" Reggie happily responded. He casually took notice of his brother's situation. "Paul!" Reggie said, clearly worried. "YOU HAVE TO HOLD STILL OR SHE WON'T GET THE RIGHT MEASUREMENT!" the man quickly went to Dawn's aid and helped hold Paul in place so that he couldn't break free.

"IDIOTS!" Paul barked. "YOU'RE CHOKING ME!"

_Several minutes later…_

"Gosh, Paul," Dawn sighed. "If you would've just held still then we wouldn't have had to do this." Reggie was sat atop of his little brother who lay sprawled out on the floor. Dawn had just finished measurements and she was now wrapping up her measuring tape. "Okay, I'm all done. Thanks Reggie!" she smiled widely.

Reggie casually stood up. "No problem! My brother is such a Mr. Grumpy, isn't he?"

Paul eventually got up with a vein throbbing on his forehead. "You idiot! Why would you help her?"

Reggie shrugged. "It was a spur of the moment kind of thing!" he grinned. Paul glared. "And…you _could _use a new outfit. A change in fashion may be just the thing that you need to change your whole attitude!" he knowingly suggested.

"I don't want a dumb new outfit," Paul simply responded in monotone. Dawn gasped dramatically and held a hand over her chest. "And I don't need a different attitude."

"Yes you do." Dawn and Reggie rebutted in harmony.

"Your attitude is horrible, little brother!" Reggie playfully grabbed the slightly shorter male in a headlock. "You always refuse to hang out with me and do brotherly things! It's such a shame…" he pouted.

"Get off of me." Paul deadpanned.

"And more importantly," Dawn held up her index finger. "You need a new outfit. That one is just _so _drab."

"There is nothing wrong WITH MY DAMN OUTFIT!" Paul argued.

Dawn skeptically eyed him up and down. "First of all, those gray cargo pants are totally boring. Then there's your jacket and shoes…they're too…'matchy'," she explained. Reggie nodded thoughtfully in agreement. "Plus, that midnight blue and electric indigo color combination that you have going on just matches the color scheme of your hair far too well. It gives you such a cold, unhappy feel."

"Aha!" Reggie exclaimed. "That matches his attitude perfectly! So if he wore bright, friendly colors then we'd definitely be awesome brother friends! BFs forever!" he mused.

_And I'm related to him? _Paul thought in annoyance. "I'm not wearing any of your stupid girly colors, Reggie."

Reggie frowned. "But why? I'm so stylish! Right, Dawn?" Dawn had taken a sudden notice of the wall as she whistled seemingly nonchalantly.

"You wear a peach shirt with an aqua apron," Paul stated. "There is no way in hell am I wearing those girly colors."

"Well duh! I have to wear an apron because I'm a Pokémon Breeder! It's just the style, Paul, you wouldn't understand."

_What a pervert, he makes Pokémon have eggs for a living… _Paul thought inwardly to himself.

"So, Dawn," Reggie said. "When can we have this outfit ready so that Paul and I can be best friends?" Paul incoherently muttered in irritation. He just wanted to get their project over with already.

Dawn tapped her jaw with a finger. "Well, what if I run home and get my sewing machine? I already have the perfect idea in mind!" she enthused.

Reggie nodded happily. "Yeah! I can drive you over right now if you-" the older plum-head was cut off by the loud crashing sound of thunder. Reggie raised an eyebrow as he strode across the floor to glance out the window, accompanied by Dawn. "Hmm…well it looks like I'm not driving in that weather…" he calmly stated after seeing the millions of raindrops pouring into the roads.

Paul silently muttered a brief "thank you" to Arceus.

"Aww! How are Paul and I gonna be best friends _now_?" Reggie pouted.

Dawn frowned in sympathy. She then snapped her fingers. "I've got it!" she exclaimed. Reggie looked her way in confusion while Paul just rolled his eyes at her antics with his hands shoved in his jacket pockets. "We'll do an at-home therapy session and _I _will help you both to form a loving relationship!"

"Oooh! What a great idea!" Reggie praised.

"No, absolutely not," Paul stepped in. "Troublesome and I have to finish our project so, Reggie, get lost."

"Awwww but Paauuullll!" Dawn and Reggie whined.

"No!" Paul decided tenaciously. It was clear that his decision was final.

As Reggie and Dawn were about to pout and plead for him to change his mind, a bright bolt of lightning lit up the sky and flashed in the whole room. All of a sudden, the lights went dead, the computers stopped running, and Dawn and Reggie screamed like girls. Paul just shook his head in dismay and muttered, "Why, Areceus…why?"

He could see their malevolent grins even through the little bit of light left in that evening. So hell had just begun?

* * *

It was almost sundown so Gary decided that he had to act fast. After all, finding a girl randomly on some long walking route would be nearly impossible without any daylight. He had decided to get out of his car and go on foot seeing as she wasn't anywhere along the road.

* * *

"Alright, so maybe I'm not as fast a runner as I had earlier anticipated…" Leaf casually admitted to herself. She crossed her legs over one another, slumped against a huge tree trunk that spawned out several branches. She had deemed it the perfect place to avoid the rain during the thunderstorm.

Leaf glanced up at the sky and pursed her lips. The storm sure didn't look like it would be ending any time soon. So she calmly sat there while digging a giant spoon into the gallon of peanut butter and chocolate ice cream that she had just bought. "Meh…everyone else wouldn't mind if I had just a teensy bit of this, right?" she pondered to herself. "Well…maybe Ash and May…but luckily, they have to bring their own food supplies!" she realized. She looked down at the large silver spoon. "I'm actually happy that May got me this spoon for my birthday now."

While the brunette was busy staring up into the dark gray sky and watching thunderbolts rain down, she hadn't taken notice of the figure now just a few feet away from her. The rain had saturated his nice shirt and dress pants. His spiky auburn hair was a wreck. Basically, he was completely and utterly soaking wet.

Gary stared at the girl he had rushed out to find. He had honestly expected her to be completely waterlogged and in a terrible condition, yet here she was. Just casually sitting under a big tree, totally shielded from the rain. And it showed because she still looked as perfect…er…as _normal _as ever.

"Well, you look as sexy as ever…" he alluringly complimented. Leaf blinked and rolled her eyes. Of course, even at a time like this he just _had_ to flirt.

"I wish I could say the same for you," she stuck her tongue out teasingly, taking notice of his being drenched in rain.

"Now, Leaf, what the hell are you doing under a giant tree during a thunderstorm?" he questioned in disappointment.

"Staying dry, of course!" she smirked proudly. Gary simply face-palmed. "Actually, my second choice was standing in the middle of a field with a metal pole!" Leaf sarcastically shared.

Gary raised an eyebrow. "So you _do _know how dangerous and unsafe this is and how likely it is for a giant branch to fall down and crush you to near death?" he described.

Leaf got to her feet and rolled her eyes. "Oh, please. What's the likeliness of tha-" As if on cue, an enormous tree branch broke off straight above her and came crashing down.

"LEAF!" Gary quickly called out.

She looked at him curiously for a split second before realizing what he meant. Leaf had barely escaped the large piece of wood by falling swiftly to her right. "OH MY GOSH!" she cried.

"Yeah," Gary caught his breath, holding a hand over his chest. "See, I told you that-"

"THAT STUPID BRANCH ALMOST HIT MY GROCERIES! I PAID GOOD MONEY FOR THESE!" she quickly grabbed the overstuffed tote bag from the ground next to the branch.

Gary just shook his head in dismay. _Of course _that's _what she's worried about_. He rolled his eyes.

"GARYYY?" she waved a hand in front of his face and he was immediately snapped out of his thoughts. "Let's go! We _must _save the groceries! Wait…where did you park again?"

He jabbed his thumb in the direction of the road and she nodded in determination.

"Okay, now you run back and get me an umbrella while I stay here and guard the groceries!" she decided cheerfully.

"Not happening." Gary took her by the hand calmly and forcefully dragged her to the car. She pouted, but still let him lead her with their hands interlocked together. She mentally scolded herself for being unable to contain a blush and thanked Arceus that he hadn't noticed it.

* * *

"Yay! We got the Water-types!" Misty clapped her hands together giddily while staring at a computer screen.

Ash blinked across the room. "What's so great about that?" he asked densely.

"OH MY GOSH, ASH!" Misty ranted. "WE TRAVEL THROUGH THE ENTIRE KANTO AND JOHTO REGIONS TOGETHER AND YOU _STILL _DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY IT'S SO GREAT THAT WE GOT WATER-TYPES AS OUR RESEARCH PROJECT?"

The raven-haired boy shrunk slightly in his seat on the bed. When she spoke, the thunder seemed to sound throughout the room as if on cue. He wrapped his arms around his knees with Pikachu cowering beside him. "You're scaring me, Mist…" he said quietly. "Just don't give me another concussion, okay…?" he whimpered pleadingly.

Misty folded her arms and rolled her eyes. _Boys are so clueless, especially Ash. _She thought in dismay. "Ash, I'm a Water Pokémon trainer and gym leader for Arceus sake." Ash nodded for her to continue. She face-palmed. "Which means that I LOVE Water-type Pokémon. Ash scratched his head in concentration. She sighed and continued. "Which means that I know lots about Water-type Pokémon."

Ash snapped his fingers together in enlightenment. "Oh, I get it now!" he announced. Misty looked at him oddly. She was quite impressed, this was Ash after all. He understood what she had meant with only a few hints this time without her having to scream it straight in his face. "That means, that Pikachu is strong against Water-type Pokémon!"

"Pika, pikaah!" Pikachu cried determinedly as it struck a pose.

_Where the hell did that come from? _Misty sighed in exasperation. "I blame myself for having hope…" she quietly mumbled. "Looks like I'll have to do this the usual way."

The redhead stood up and took long strides over towards Ash, who sat on the other side of the room. She leaned in closer towards his face while he just blinked in surprise, as he would always do. Finally, she took a deep breath and got down to it. "THAT MEANS OUR DAMN PROJECT WILL BE EASIER! DO YOU UNDERSTAND _NOW_?" she loudly yelled in his face.

Ash was literally blow away by her booming voice. He nodded happily. "That was gonna be my fifth guess!" he shared.

Misty sighed sheepishly. "Oh, Ash. It's going to be _such _a pleasure working with _you_..." she sarcastically mumbled.

* * *

Drew stared at May in boredom as she scarfed down several spoonfuls of ice cream.

"It's rude to stare at people when they eat, you know," May reminded. She shot him a disappointed look which failed to affect him, seeing as the lower half of her face was covered in sprinkles, whipped cream, chocolate syrup and ice cream.

Drew smirked. "May? _Manners_?" he pretended to be shocked. May rolled her eyes. "While you're just learning proper etiquette, you can add 'stuffing your face at someone else's house with food that you stole from their fridge' to your notes."

May stuck her tongue out childishly at him.

_Several minutes later…_

"STOP STARING AT ME!" May yelled at the grasshead parallel to her.

"Why? Am I making you _uncomfortable_?" he smirked in victory.

May's face reddened. "JUST STOP IT ALREADY!" May was a proud overeater, and she _never _felt uneasy doing so in front of _anyone_. But for some Arceus-forsaken reason, right now she did.

Drew continued to stare her straight in the eyes just because of her reaction. _Before I was just staring at Maple to admire her…I-I mean to…it was just a coincidence…but if it's gonna irritate her, why not?_

"So, where are your parents?" May casually attempted to change the topic. Drew froze and then gazed down at the floor. "Are they in some random room in your huge mansion?" she went on, satisfied that there were no longer a set of critical eyes on her.

"No..." he muttered under his breath, not making eye contact. May waited, expecting him to continue.

"So then where are they?" she bluntly asked, taking another spoonful of ice cream.

Drew recovered and broke his staring contest with the floor to look back to the girl across from him. "Meh, their on vacation again," he mentioned nonchalantly. "No big deal."

May nearly spit out her food, but that would be a total waste. And that would go against every moral that she had ever valued in life. "V-Vacation?" he nodded. "Your own parents went on vacation without you?"

He waved the subject off. "Yeah, they do that occasionally."

"Oh, no wonder you're such a jerk!" May brightly smiled.

Drew sweat-dropped. "Was that supposed to be comforting?"

May took one last large spoonful of ice cream and shoved it into her mouth. "Well it's just that now I can see part of why you're such a jerk, it's because you're lonely, right?" she beamed. Drew folded his arms and shook his head in denial. "Oh, bullshit! Now come on, we're going to fix your traumatic childhood!" she declared and grabbed him by the arm, dragging him off in some direction.

"What are you talking about?" Drew argued but allowed her to lead him to whatever trouble she had in mind.

May looked to him with a warm, friendly smile. "You'll see!"

* * *

Dawn sat in an armchair of the Shinji's household. Across the room sat two brothers on a matching couch. The room was lined with several scented candles that gave off a sweet, rosy fragrance.

"So when did this all start?" Dawn asked professionally. She tilted the rectangular black glasses on her face stylishly.

Reggie politely motioned to his younger brother to speak first. Paul sighed heavily in annoyance. "Why the hell am I here?"

"Hmm…" Dawn murmured. "Interesting. So you're considering the philosophy of life, Mr…Shinji, was it?" she tapped her chin with a pink gel pen thoughtfully. "That's a very complex theory to be discussing during this lesson. Perhaps another time?"

"You know that wasn't what I was talking about, Troublesome," he crossed his arms and shifted further away from Reggie on the couch. His brother stubbornly inched closer to him again. Paul grunted. "Why the hell do I have to sit through your dumb version of 'therapy'?"

"Yeah, Dawn, why _did _you decide to help us?" Reggie curiously asked. "And where did you get that outfit all of a sudden?"

Dawn shut the pink binder that she had already scribbled some notes in. "Well, boys," she proudly stood up. "I felt that it was my obligation to help another troubled couple of society!" she declared.

"Don't call us a 'couple'," Paul grumbled. "And what's the _real _reason you did it?" he pried.

Dawn giggled. "You caught me, Paulie!" she confessed. "See, coincidentally, I had this absolutely _perfect _outfit tucked away in my school bag for an occasion such as this one!" she motioned to her black office skirt that only reached mid-thigh. It matched her black blazer perfectly which was accented with a baby blue under shirt and a silver necklace. "See? Cute, huh?"

"You're right! It fits the event to a T!" Reggie agreed while Paul mentally slapped himself for letting his eyes wander over the skimpy outfit.

"Thanks so much, Reggie!" Dawn smiled brightly. "So, Paulie, what do you think of my little ensemble?" she winked.

"I…It's…" Paul muttered, slightly flustered. It hugged her waist well and showed off plenty of feminine curves, she was just _trying _to toy with him now. "It's fine. Okay?" he grunted in annoyance.

Dawn frowned. "Is that the best compliment you can give me?" she puffed her cheeks out.

"Whatever." Paul rolled his eyes.

Dawn sighed heavily. "Anyways, so tell me, Reggie. When did this, the problem with your horrible brother, start?" Dawn quizzed.

"Hmm…" Reggie pondered. "I think it all started when Paul was born, he just seemed to have a natural hatred towards me!" Paul just folded his arms.

"How so?" Dawn continued, resting her chin in her hands.

"Well, I tried to give him a bottle and then he just threw up on me! Just like that, for absolutely no apparent reason!" Reggie ranted. "It hurt my feelings a lot!"

Dawn sweat-dropped. "Reggie, I think that a lot of babies do that, it's not-"

"WHAT?" Reggie gasped. "So now you're saying that ALL babies hate me?"

"No! I never said tha-"

"That's it, Dawn!" Reggie interrupted. "You're the _worst _therapist EVER!" he sobbed.

Dawn blinked and Paul raised an eyebrow at his brother's dramatic behavior. Before Dawn could say anything else, Reggie abruptly stood up and turned on his heels, dashing down the nearest hallway all while bawling theatrically. It was hard to see where exactly he was going, however, since the scented candles were only in the living room in which they sat.

"Um…where'd he go?" the blunette questioned the only other person left in the room.

"I guess he ran to his room..." Paul shrugged.

"Will he be okay?" Dawn asked.

"Who cares?" Paul decided.

Dawn sighed. "You're such a great brother..." She mumbled sarcastically.

* * *

Reggie slammed the door behind him once he was safely hidden in a room down the hall dark hallway. Starraptor was casually waiting for him on a chair across the room.

"Star? Star-Starraptor?" it asked, frantically flapping its wings.

"It went perfectly, Starraptor!" Reggie mused, completely recovering from his little fit. "Those two lovebirds completely believed me!"

"Star…raptor?" it wearily brought up.

"Nah, don't worry, they'll definitely thank me for this one day!" Reggie surely responded. "Just two teens, stuck together in a dark room full of candles…Paul will finally find happiness!"

"Star?" it mentioned.

"Oh, don't you worry about the breaker box." Reggie cynically rubbed his hands together. "I took care of that!" he happily assured.

* * *

"NO! YOU'LL NEVER TAKE ME DOWN THERE!" Dawn yelled. "YOU'LL NEVER TAKE ME TO YOUR SCARY SECRET TORTURE CHAMBER! SOMEBODY HELP!" she screeched.

"DAMMIT, TROUBLESOME! I TOLD YOU IT'S JUST A FREAKING BASEMENT!" Paul tried reasoning. "Now come on, I just need you to hold the damn flashlight!"

"YOU WON'T FOOL ME, PAUL SHINJI! REGGIE! HELPPPP!" the blunette called out. Paul rolled his eyes and opted for dragging her forcefully downstairs by the wrist. "NO, PLEASE, I'M TOO YOUNG TO DIE! THE NEW SPRING FASHION MAGAZINE COMES OUT IN TWO WEEKS!" she sobbed.

Against her will, Paul eventually led her down the cold, concrete stairs and to a specific corner of the basement with her trembling the whole way. She looked around in suspicion but it was too dark to see anything.

"Fine," she mumbled. "Give me the stupid flashlight." She stuck her nose in the air but took the flashlight from him as he handed it to her. After taking a quick look around and shining the light to all of the faraway places in the room, she sighed in relief. "Good, no torture chambers in sight…unless there's a secret door…" she skeptically wondered.

Paul face-palmed. "Just shine the light over here."

Dawn nodded and did as told. She flipped the switch with the flashlight pointing towards where he had instructed her to and let out a squeal when she saw what was guarding their path.

Paul only blinked at the surprise before them. He raised an eyebrow. "Electivire? What are _you _doing down here? Move aside so I can get to the breaker box."

"Electi!" it shook its head furiously. The large Electric-type folded its arms and stood strongly, guarding the breaker box.

"Why won't you let us through? I'm your trainer, do as I say!" he ordered in annoyance. Electivire shook its head again. "Who put you up to this? Was it that idiot, Reggie?" Paul finally put together the 'puzzle pieces'.

"Hm, I wonder why Reggie would do that." Dawn twisted a strand of hair around her finger innocently.

Paul grunted. "Fine. What will it take for you to let me through?" Electivire stuck its nose up to the air. "You're not going against Reggie's orders, are you?" He narrowed his eyes. "There has to be _some _damn thing that'll get you to move. What is it?"

Electivire hesitantly looked down at his plum-haired trainer and then grinned evilly. Dawn blinked and Paul raised an eyebrow, wondering what ever could this Pokémon have in mind…

* * *

**GASP! I wonder what'll happen next?! Well, I know. ;D**

**Thanks always for reviews! I love to hear from you guys!  
Feel free to give out constructive critique as well, it won't hurt my feelings, I promise! ^_^**

**And by the way, good luck to everyone starting school soon! :)**


	7. Love in the Air

**Heyy~! :p**

**Big thanks to_ Iloveikari, eeveeluvr, Halloween Witch, XMidnightprincesSX, LunarEclipse22428, Cheep the Hedgehog, LeafxGreenx3, UltimateLoveStorys, & Cayley (Guest)_ for reviewing the last chapter! :D**

**P.S. What do you guys think of me thanking reviewers like that per each chapter? I think it's a nice little way to say thanks...but if it's really annoying TELL ME IN REVIEWS/PMs PLEASE! :) And I really hope I spelled everyone's penname right, I checked it like five times o.O If not, please yell at me! ^_^**

**So here's chappy #7 and I hope that everyone else is faring okay with school and such! D:**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon.**

* * *

"Electi, Vire, Electa!" The large yellow Pokémon counted off as it handed out three miniature cars to the other players.

"Wait, can't I have the white one?" Dawn pouted.

"Vire?" Electivire questioned.

"White matches _anything_!" Dawn cheerfully explained. "And besides, there's not a pink one."

Electivire nodded happily and swapped out her orange piece for the one she had requested. "Electivire?" it asked Paul courteously.

"I really don't care what stupid car I have, can we just get this damn thing over with." Paul muttered and crossed his arms.

"Cheer up, Paul!" Dawn beamed. "Besides, this isn't just a game, it's LIFE!" she dramatically stated.

"Troublesome, just because this game is called 'The Game of Life' that doesn't mean that you can make melodramatic statements of its importance."

Dawn yawned as he lectured. "You're such a boring Mr. Grumpy. Quit lecturing or else I'm gonna fall asleep, and I can _not _let you beat me at a board game. Although I guess that would make sense for you to win because you're such a _boring _person."

Paul rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Electivire, you really do know punishment…" he muttered. Of course his own Pokémon would make him go through the pain of sitting through a board game with Troublesome. It was truly the ultimate torture.

_Several minutes later…_

"You landed on 'Get Married', Paulie," Dawn declared. "Which, of course, only would happen in a board game because of your girly haircut!" she cheerfully mentioned as she handed him a miniature blue person.

"Why the hell did you give me another man character, Troublesome?" Paul questioned in irritation. "I'm NOT gay, alright? And my haircut is _not _girly!" he snapped.

"You can deny it all you want but that won't change a thing!" Dawn remarked in her usual bubbly voice. "But if you still want to avoid the truth, we'll say you married a man because you support gay rights. Otherwise, Harley would be ashamed!"

"You think I care?" Paul grumbled.

"Ten!" Dawn cheered as Paul spun a colorful wheel. "That means I get ten-thousand fake dollars since my career is a policewoman! Hand it over, Paul." She darkly commanded. "OMG I would look so amazing in a cop outfit..." Dawn dreamily thought aloud.

"Electivire!" Electivire cheered happily.

Paul sighed. "Is this eternal hell over with yet?" he asked in a weak, defeated tone.

"Ele!" Electivire shook its head furiously.

"Electivire already told us that we had to play a board game with it if we wanted the power to come back on so that we can finish your precious project!" Dawn reminded while waggling a finger at the prunehead. "Now come on, it's your turn already, Mr. Grumpy!"

* * *

"I'm getting so excited just _thinking _about how my baby brother and Dawn are doing!" Reggie enthused in his room, otherwise known as his secret operations base.

"Star-staraptor…" the bird Pokémon mumbled. Its trainer sure had issues. He had taken all of this time to set up two young teenagers and now he was fantasizing about them? As if having Pokémon make eggs for a living wasn't bad enough…

Reggie gasped as a thought came to mind. "Staraptor, what if they don't 'click' without my continued expert help?"

"Star!"

"Don't be so positive! I must help my dear little brother and I know just the way, I've already planned ahead…" he slyly mentioned as he skipped across his room towards a small 20-inch television. As he clicked it on, he was able to see four separate rooms of the house split on the screen.

Staraptor gasped. "STAR!"

"I'm not crazy, I'm helpful!" Reggie beamed as his Pokémon simply shook its head in dismay. He scanned his eyes over the screen in concentration until they came upon Electivire in the living room with the two targets...playing a board game. "THAT TRAITOR!" Reggie furiously exclaimed. He took out an earpiece from his pocket and yelled into it. "ELECTIVIRE YOU'RE GOING TO RUIN MY PLAN! How could you give into the enemy over a simple game of Life?"

Onscreen, the unnoticeable earpiece that Electivire was wearing translated Reggie's message while Electivire simply took off the small electronic device and threw it into the corner of the room while Paul and Dawn weren't paying attention.

Reggie sighed heavily. "Well I guess it's time for Plan B," he dug a Poké Ball out of his apron pocket. "Come on out, Agent Meditite!" Staraptor rolled its eyes at its trainer's codenames. A blue Pokémon appeared, levitating in an Indian-style sitting position.

"Star-Starr?" Staraptor grinned suggestively.

"I-uh…What does it matter if I borrowed it from Maylene?" Reggie responded, flustered.

"Medi tite!" Meditite cheerfully mocked.

Reggie cleared his throat loudly and the two antagonizers stopped teasing him. "Okay, now if that's over with…on with our Plan B!" he declared with determination. Meditite nodded with great resolve whereas Staraptor was beginning to wonder how sane its trainer truly was.

* * *

"Misty?"

The redhead ignored the call, continuing to type at the keyboard in deep concentration.

"Mistyyyy?" the voice whined again.

Again, she ignored him. She entered to the next line and indented, beginning the next paragraph.

"Mist-"

"YES, ASH?" Misty snapped and finally swung the desk chair around in which she sat to face the annoying teen.

Ash sat in shock for a few moments. "Can I help?" he weakly questioned.

Misty sighed. "Ash, I'm sorry but there really is no way for you to help."

"Oh, come on!" Ash smiled. "There has to be _some _way!" he decided with determination.

"There really isn't…" Misty muttered glumly and turned around to continue the tedious essay. Across the room, Ash pulled out a laptop from behind his bed. He pressed a few buttons and the machine started running, causing her to take notice of it.

"See Mist," Ash grinned goofily. "I'm going to help and research some information, we'll get this essay done in no time…together!" he laughed childishly in victory. Misty smiled and blushed slightly. "Are you sick, Misty? You're cheeks look a weird color." Ash pointed out.

Misty turned away with a vein throbbing on her forehead, hand on her ready mallet. She exhaled. "I'll let him go…just this once…" she said softly to herself and smiled girlishly.

* * *

"NO! Get off me, Hayden!"

"Why ever would I do that?"

"That's a cheap shot! I'm gonna hit the wall soon, grasshead! Getting desperate?"

"No way, I'm gonna be beating you all night long."

May sweat-dropped. "That sounded kind of dirty." Currently, she and Drew were in his bedroom playing Mario Kart Wii on his flat screen TV. They sat next to each other on a comfy rug while the storm outside raged on.

Drew shrugged. "I'm impressed you even thought of that, seeing as though you're so dense and all," he smirked. "And you're an especially bad driver." He flicked the steering wheel controller in his hands which resulted in a pixellated bomb to be thrown at May's character's car.

"WOW, you asshole!" May complained but smirked secretly. She let her car drop back into second place as the computer character in front of her was blasted with a cloud of blue smoke. "Haha! Missed me!" she stuck her tongue out.

Although Drew was both a bit shocked and impressed, he refused to let it show.

"WOOHOO!" May cheered as she dropped her controller and jumped up. "First place, once again! You'll never beat me, for I am the amazing May!" she declared.

Drew set his controller down in defeat and stood up, flicking his hair. "Well, you may win in the virtual world but it's still assuring to know that you'll never beat me in the real world." Drew smiled teasingly. May almost glared at him but then took notice of the shape of his lips. They formed not his usual haughty smirk, but something else…something innocent and kind and not to mention, alluring. May blushed slightly and Drew raised an eyebrow momentarily, but she turned away before he could get a good look.

"So…is your childhood fixed yet?" May changed the topic of interest.

"I don't know if you kicking my ass at video games is going to help my childhood," Drew mentioned. He smiled purely. "But I will admit, it was nice to play them with someone else."

May beamed. "Glad to hear!"

Drew casually walked over and sat on his bed, hands behind his head. "So, August, how'd you get so good at video games?" he asked with slight curiosity.

May grinned proudly. "I have a little brother, we need to find _creative _ways to settle who washes the dishes each night!" she explained while joining him sitting on the furniture. "See, it's a very important decision..." She twirled a strand of hair sheepishly around her index finger.

"Of course, because I'm sure you eat enough to use as many dishes as fifty people, right?" Drew nodded jokingly in understanding.

"Only 37, gosh!" May huffed and folded her arms, turning away from him in irritation. She knew he was probably raising an eyebrow. "…Fine 38!" she reluctantly admitted.

Drew nodded in approval. He turned his head away as well, seeming to be having a mental debate over something. _Maybe I should just tell her…after all she is really dense…_ he considered in his thoughts. "And I doubt she'll ever figure it out on her own." Drew froze after realizing he had spoken the last words aloud.

May blinked and turned to face him. "Figure out what?" she asked curiously.

Drew sweat-dropped. "Just as I thought…"

"Thought what?" May demanded. He noticed that she seemed especially intrigued by his particular words.

"Why do you want to know so badly?" Drew tested suspiciously.

"Uh…erm…" May swallowed and retreated her eyes from his gaze. "I was just wondering, that's all!" she promptly lied. Before Drew could question her further, she opted for changing the subject. "Hey! I've got the perfect idea for how to fix your depressing childhood next, let's play tag!"

Drew pursed his lips in confusion. "What is 'tag'?" he honestly inquired.

May's jaws dropped as her eyes widened twice their original size. She face-palmed herself. "This is going to be harder than I thought…" she realized while Drew just continued to wait for an answer. "I'll need a snack break to replenish my energy!" she declared elatedly and pulled out a granola bar from her pocket. It was Drew's turn to face-palm.

* * *

Paul sighed. "Kill me." He glanced around the living room they were in. The three of them were still kneeling around a coffee table that they had set up the game board on with a ridiculous amount of Reggie's damn scented candles surrounding them for light. "Nevermind, inhaling enough of this odor probably will eventually…" he muttered and rested his chin on his hand with his elbow propped atop the table. He tilted his head to one side, accidently letting a strand of lilac lean over a nearby candle. Realizing this, he quickly sat back and started to blow at the end of end of his hair frantically, his usual scowl leaving his expression for an instant.

Dawn momentarily blinked at the scene and then grinned. Unable to stifle a laugh, she eventually broke out into a fit of giggles, interrupting the previous silence.

"What's so damn funny?" the plumhead demanded with a scowl.

Dawn frowned. She daringly reached out to him and tugged at his eyebrows, making his scowl disappear again. She was surprised he hadn't slapped her away yet.

"T-Troublesome what the hell?" Paul asked, but with a surprised look and not a scowl to Dawn's satisfaction.

Dawn smiled brightly and giggled again. "There, you look much better without that mean look on your face!"

Paul flushed slightly. He mentally scolded himself. _Argh! What's wrong with me? It's Troublesome…there's something about her that…that…ugh I don't even know, dammit! _he thought angrily.

Still, for some reason he couldn't bring that scowl back to his face at that moment. It was because she was happy. That bright grin and annoying cheery voice somehow restrained his regular habits. But how could one girl do something like that?

* * *

"Meditite, do you copy? Hello?" Reggie spoke officially into the spy gear. No response….Reggie smirked. "Maylene is hot, repeat, Maylene is hot, over."

"MEDI-TITE!" Meditite suddenly burst into a fit of laughter on the other end of the conversation. Reggie's face flushed a prominent shade of pink.

"Th-That was just a test! It didn't mean anything!" Reggie hurriedly denied. He cleared his throat. "Anyways, have you located target codename: Big Yellow Idiot Traitor?" the purple-haired man questioned.

"Tite!" Meditite confirmed in all serious. With Reggie's ridiculous codenames, it was pretty easy to guess who Big Yellow Idiot Traitor was.

"Excellent!" Reggie beamed. "Okay, are Mr. Grumpy Grape-Head Little Brother and Future Girlfriend of Mr. Grumpy Grape-Head Little Brother occupied from the secret mission?"

"Tite," Meditite repeated. "Medi, tite-tite-tite."

"I do _not _need new codenames! Those ones are simply _gold_!" he declared, clearly offended. He exhaled calmly. "Okay, Agent Meditite, now!" Reggie cued.

Meditite nodded to itself in determination as its eyes glowed with psychic power and it lifted its arms to control the move it was using. With careful concentration, it telepathically lifted the large yellow Pokémon Electivire with Confusion and levitated away with it down the hallway at the speed of light, almost as if a powerful gust of wind had swept them away. In actuality, it _was _Staraptor's Gust attack assistance. The team of Reggie's Pokémon minions safely retreated down the hallway back to the base without being seen.

* * *

"Oh my Arceus!" Dawn squealed.

Paul was a bit shaken up himself. "Yeah, that random gust of wind was strange."

"No, my HAIR!" the blunette exclaimed. "LOOK AWAY!" To avoid the troublesome girl's beauty wrath Paul decided to comply. Dawn toyed with a few windswept strands of hair before being satisfied. "Okay, I'm gorgeous again!" she declared. Paul rolled his eyes.

"What the…" Paul realized. "Where'd Electivire go?"

Dawn's eyes darted about. "Hm…I'm not sure."

"Good, now we can quit this damn game."

"NO!" Dawn scolded. "It probably went to go guard the breaker box again after that mysterious gust of wind, therefore we still can't get to it until we complete this board game!" she obstinately decided and spun the colorful number wheel again. Paul sighed.

And the two teens continued The Game of Life whilst sitting close together in a dark, candlelit room. Of course that could not possibly lead to anything romantic…right?

* * *

Leaf dramatically dropped to her to her knees after stepping out of the car. "NAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" she cried out, looking towards the dark sky with a million raindrops falling down upon the scene in the lawn outside of her house.

Gary slammed his door hurriedly and rushed over to her side of the car to see what was happening. "Are you okay?" he bent down next to her. She shook her head in dire pain. "What happened?" he asked in concern.

"The carton of eggs...one of the eggs…broke!" the brunette sobbed.

Gary stared blankly at her with thunder echoing all around them. "You're such a frugal cheapskate, Leafy." He sighed in dismay and teasingly flicked her in the side of the head, causing her to lose balance and topple over on her side in the soaked grass.

"I'm not a cheapskate, I'm smart and I save money…" Leaf grumbled defensively to herself as she picked a few pieces of grass out of her hair while Gary courteously picked up the massive bag of groceries and headed over towards the front door, shortly followed by the cheapskate girl.

The brunet casually opened the mailbox and grabbed a silver object from it. "Wow. You _still _keep the spare key here after how many years?" Gary pointed out. Leaf stuck her tongue out. "Don't come crying to me when the mailman breaks in."

Leaf snatched the key from him and shoved it in the keyhole. "Well thanks for the lift! I'll see you sometime this weekend to work on our project, okay?" Leaf grinned mischievously.

Gary shook his head in disapproval. "Oh, Leafy," he smiled. "Having me drive home when I could get into a terrible accident in this weather? You're so cruel…just my type." He raised his eyebrows seductively.

"I could probably waste another egg for good purpose…" Leaf deviously decided as she tried to get the grocery bag from him. He swiftly dodged and headed into the house.

"Nice place you got here, it looks better than usual actually," he commented, attempting to change the subject. Leaf grabbed a couple of towels out of a nearby linen closet and tossed him one of them.

"I know," Leaf haughtily flipped a strand of hair. After doing so, she mentally planned to keep away from Drew in fear of developing any more of his annoying habits. "I hold the house together pretty well. I just wish I could cook something besides a TV dinner…" she sweat-dropped. She theatrically dropped to her knees once again while clutching her stomach. "And we ran out of those last night!" She ruffled her hair with the towel to dry off any bits of precipitation.

Gary followed and did the same, "Didn't you buy any at the store, idiot?" Gary pointed out. He kicked off his shoes on a mat and plopped down on a nearby couch.

"Erm…no?" Leaf admitted. "I was too focused on buying a bunch of stuff for breakfast tomorrow morning!" she whined.

"Your mom's coming back tomorrow?" he questioned.

"Yep…until then I will fast!" she dramatically declared. Her stomach growled to its discontent. "You little ungrateful tummy, isn't peanut butter and chocolate ice cream good enough for you?" Leaf glared down at her abdomen.

"Worry not, Leafy!" Gary announced. "For the great Gary Oak is best at everything, and I will teach you how to cook a meal for the night!"

Leaf looked at him skeptically. "Um…I think I'll pass."

_Several minutes later…_

"Why did I agree to this again?" Leaf huffed and folded her arms in annoyance in the kitchen of her home. She was wearing a big fluffy chef's hat with a green apron and surely was not too pleased about it.

"After you denied my help, your stomach accepted with a really loud growl!" he reminded in triumph.

"What about this stupid outfit?"

"You look so adorable in it!" he gushed fliratiously.

"Where's Misty's mallet when I need it?" Leaf muttered. "Then why aren't you wearing one?" she pointed out.

"Awww are you saying that I'd look cute in a chef's outfit?" Gary manipulated her words.

Leaf turned away as her cheeks reddened. "N-No! Of course not!" she quickly denied. Before Gary could comment, she changed the subject. "Now what the hell do you want me to cook?"

Gary smirked. "We're going to make grilled cheese!" he proclaimed. "Because that's the only semi-suitable dinner we can make with the ingredients you have at your house..." he added as a side note.

Leaf nodded. "Okay! I will start!" she decided. Gary watched in amusement as she picked up a square piece of cheese still in plastic wrap and turned on the stovetop to the highest degree. She proudly took the packaged slice of cheese and dropped it onto the burner. "Waa-la! Dinner is served." She grinned happily.

Gary's eyes widened. "LEAFY!" he scolded frantically as he turned off the stove and tried to pick up the plastic-wrapped cheese without burning his fingers. She scowled at him as he tossed it into the trash.

"What the hell? That was my dinner!" she reminded in aggravation.

Gary sighed in disappointment. "You really do fail at cooking…" he shook his head in disbelief.

Leaf folded her arms. "Like you could do better!" she challenged.

"Exactly, I'm pretty sure Misty's Psyduck could do better. And _that _is one hell of a statement."

The brunette gasped and suddenly went to sulk in a corner. "…that was harsh."

Gary nodded in agreement. "The truth hurts, Leafy."

* * *

**Leaf will burn down the house one of these days cx ****I hope no one was really confused about that board game part...I'm not sure how popular The Game of Life is elsewhere but my friends and I are in love with it. XD**

**So this chapter was sort of a filler, you may say, to get things caught up/aligned for the next chapter.**

**Let me know in the reviews what you think of me thanking my reviewers like I did in the top A/N. (ex: annoying/not annoying/stupid/I hate you/YAYY I LOVE IT! :D) cx**


	8. Not So Stormy part 1

**Happy [late] Thanksgiving~! Missed you guys, it's been so long... D':**

**Thank you to _XMidnightPrincesSX_, _SpecialxGirl_ (guest), _spiceypepper_, _eeveeluvr_, _KittyKatLovesBooks_, _Cheep the Hedgehog_, _Guest_ (guest), _malory79080_, _Iloveikari_, _Leafxgreenx3_, _LunarEclipse22428_, _MusicalEscape_, and _you-are-reading-my-username_ for reviewing chapter 7! Cyber cake for you all~! :D**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon.**

_To **recap** since I'm horrible and update so scarcely; Drew doesn't know what the game 'tag' is because of his lonely childhood :(, Leaf is a failure at cooking, Misty and Ash are working on the project (yeah, only ones XD), and Paul and Dawn are playing The Game of Life._

* * *

"Okay, operation 'tag' will now shortly commence!" May declared as she and Drew stood beside each other in running positions at the end of one of the various hallways of his home.

"Those were some pretty big words, April," Drew slyly commented.

Ignoring her nickname, she folded her arms and tilted her head up and away to the cream-colored wall in annoyance. "I've always known big words such as those." Drew shot her a disapproving glance. May huffed. "Fine, I saw them last night on TV, okay?"

Drew nodded righteously.

May cleared her throat and switched her glance in determination ahead of her. "Okay, ready?"

"Wait!" Drew interjected. "To recap; you run away with a ten-second head start and I just have to run after and then, as you say, 'tag' you when I am close enough?" he questioned in all seriousness.

May sweat-dropped and nodded. "Yep, is just as simple as that…any other questions?"

Drew shook his head thoughtfully. "Nope. Ready, set, go!" he quickly mentioned.

"Huh?" May frantically asked, caught off guard.

"I said 'go'. Eight more seconds left of your head start!" he smirked mischievously.

The brunette squealed in surprise and hurriedly ran off one way. "That was a cheap shot, Hayden!" she called behind her while turning a corner.

Drew chuckled slightly. "Oh, May," he fondly mumbled to himself and sighed in content. He took a while to snap out of his trance and checked his watch. "Damn! I gave her twenty seconds!" he realized while taking off sprinting down the hall.

. . . . .

"Heh heh, I wonder what's taking him so long." May jogged in relaxation down the hallway. She sighed. "All of this running is making me hungry…what a workout." She fingered a strand of hair away from her eyes.

"Go, Flygon!" a voice from far behind her called.

"Huh?" May raised an eyebrow in question. She slowed to a stop and turned around to see what all of the commotion was about, only to be greeted by a large, green dragon Pokémon flying into her.

"Oooff!" May grunted as she fell backwards against the plush carpeting. Flygon hovered over her happily, proud of obeying its trainer.

"Good job, Flygon!" Drew praised as he walked up to them.

"Drew!" May narrowed her eyes. "That's not how you play tag!"

Drew's eyes widened slightly. "How so?"

"You can't cheat and use your Pokémon!" she elaborated.

"You never said that."

"Well most people can understand that. I'm sure even Ash would."

"_Well_ then!" Drew huffed and crossed his arms. He reluctantly unfolded them submissively and recalled Flygon to its Poké Ball. "Fine. We'll have a redo. Ready, set, go!" he quickly said.

"UGH!" May grumbled at his same trick over again. She shot up and sprinted off down a different hallway.

"One…two…three…four…five…six…seven…eight…nine…ten!" Drew counted tediously to avoid another distraction. "I'll definitely win this time!" he smiled determinedly while racing down the hall after her.

* * *

"Okay," Gary started. Leaf stood beside him, analyzing his actions closely. "Now, first thing that you need to do is remove the plastic _from _the cheese," he slowly explained. Leaf watched quizzically but nodded as she grasped the concept. "Okay, now hand me the bread, butter, and a knife."

Leaf sauntered across the tile to grab the specified items off a counter. "Here you go," Leaf said as she handed the items to him.

Gary stared at the blade in disappointment. "Why do you have a machete?" he suspiciously asked.

Leaf shrugged. "For the butter, right?" she innocently inquired.

"I was thinking of something more along the lines of a _butter_ knife."

"Fine then," Leaf huffed as she walked away, seeing nothing wrong with what she had previously given him. She returned with a much smaller knife.

Gary nodded in approval. "Good, Leafy." He condescendingly patted her on the head.

"Pat me on the head again, and you'll find out why I have that machete, Oak!" Leaf warned deviously.

Deciding that he valued his life very much as _The_ _Great Gary Oak_, he cautiously withdrew his hand and turned back to the stove while a certain brunette smirked in victory.

"Okay," Gary sighed after a few minutes. "I've made this very simple and I'd like to think that even you could do it."

"Machete…" Leaf grumbled quietly.

"What was that? Did you say, _'Gary is so hot and cool I'd totally love to go out with him!'_ just now?" he taunted playfully.

Leaf mischievously reached for the knife container a bit off to her left while Gary was too busy laughing at his own joke. She thought she was in the clear until his hand had clamped down on her wrist suddenly. It wasn't harsh enough to cause any pain, but her head snapped up in surprise.

"You're more observant than I though." She blew at the nails on her free hand haughtily. She stopped when she noticed how his expression looked a bit hurt. "What happened to the _Great Gary Oak_?" she teased.

He sighed lightly and turned his head to look away. "You _really _don't like me at all, Leafy."

Leaf froze as what he said echoed through her mind. She felt confused for whatever unexplainable reason and kept her eyes locked solemnly on the hand that gripped her wrist. "Oh calm down," she spoke in almost a whisper. "You know it was only a joke, I'd never stab you."

Gary turned back around far too suddenly. "Glad to hear, Leafy!" he cheered with a smirk. "I'm surprised I was able to break through your regular sarcastic and witty remarks!"

"You were faking?" Leaf yelled angrily with reddened cheeks. She finally broke her wrist from his grasp as Gary continued to smirk victoriously. "…I'm slightly impressed." She crossed her arms.

"Well of course, now let's feed Leafy's little tummy, shall we?" he gently prodded at her stomach, an action which she ignored, still wallowing over his sinister trickery. She was forced to recognize him as he abruptly took her by the waist and held her close while standing in front of the readied stove.

"Wh-what are you d-doing?" she froze on the spot. She mentally groaned. She hated this. She absolutely hated how someone could do this to her; make her freeze on the spot; have her immobilized just by a simple touch. And, even worse, that _someone _just had to be the biggest player in school. She refused to let someone have this effect on her who did not even care for her, but only the entire girl population in general. Yet even with this great resolve, she was still rendered powerless and frozen in place.

"I'm teaching you to cook, duh," he explained while resting his chin on her right shoulder.

"I-I don't see how this is h-helpful!" she pointed out.

"Aww, is someone _stuttering_?" he lightheartedly brought to attention.

"N-no."

...

Well _that_ was convincing.

Gary sighed. "You know you just did it again, right?"

Leaf decided on not responding again since she would likely only contradict herself in the process.

"Since you're in agreement, we shall begin!" he declared smugly, placing his hands over hers as puppet strings and moving them skillfully across the counter, carefully picking up the pan by the handle and placing it on the stovetop. "So the real key is," he began, guiding her hands to lift up the piece of cheese and bread, "to cook the cheese _unwrapped _between two slices of _bread_, not just cheese alone."

Leaf nodded thoughtfully. "I guess that would make sense."

"Uh huh," he agreed, glad he had gotten his point across. "Then all that's really left is to cook the cheese between the two pieces of bread."

Leaf almost sweat-dropped. "Pffft, I can do that in my sleep."

"…Maybe you should try it _awake _first."

"Okay, I get it now. So I will!" she declared with determination. The brunette began doing various simple tasks such as turning on the burner and stacking the cheese between the bread.

"So you're enjoying this?" Gary slyly mentioned.

"Sure, it's nice knowing how to cook something without a microwave." She smiled and continued watching the bread and cheese vigilantly as it cooked.

"I can tell." He let out a small chuckle.

Leaf became suspicious. "What's so funny…?" she cautiously questioned. "That I'm _enjoying _this? I don't see your sense of humor, Gary."

Gary smirked. "It's just very interesting that you haven't asked me to let go of you yet," he whispered into her ear. Leaf's eyes widened. "Or 'go jump of a cliff', or 'get lost', or to 'back off' before you 'show me why you have that machete—"

Her eyes appeared to fill with a menacing fire. "Oak, GO FALL OFF A DAMN CLIFF!" she shouted while fiercely jabbing an elbow back into him.

He stumbled back a few feet but managed to stay standing. "Ah, so you went for a variation of my second prediction. It was a little later than expected but—"

"Well…I…momentarily forgot, okay?!" Leaf huffed and folded her arms across her chest.

Gary raised an eyebrow. "Sure, sure," he patronized.

* * *

"Misty…?" Ash called.

Misty sighed.

"Mist—"

"We're not doing this again, Ash," Misty deadpanned. Honestly, how many times _was _he going to bug her? She pushed the desk chair away from the computer in defeat and turned attentively to face him with an air of annoyance. "Okay. What do you need now, Ash?" she questioned as patiently as she could muster.

Ash blinked. "…Nevermind, Mist." He redirected his attention to the laptop in his hands.

Misty raised an eyebrow curiously. "What were you going to say?" Ash shook his head. "Why won't you tell me? I actually was _nicer _this time come on!" she erupted.

"It's nothing. I don't wanna annoy you, anyways," the raven-haired boy decided and turned his concentration back to the research.

"Come on, Ash! Tell me, I already turned away from the essay, you'll just annoy me more if you don't." She folded her arms and waited with anticipation.

Ash considered the idea for a moment. "I guess you're right." He childishly smiled. "Well I was just wondering if you ever read this book I found online, since you love Water-type Pokémon and all. Maybe I could buy it for you and we could read it together! Ooh! _Maybe _it might help with the project!" he eagerly input.

Misty smiled. "That's so nice, Ash! Who knew you could be so sweet!" she gushed uncharacteristically. Misty mentally shot herself a questioning look. Usually, she was never so enthusiastic except when she was talking about Water-type Pokémon. She shook off the strange thought. "So what's the book called anyways?"

"Let's see…" Ash murmured as he pulled up the link again on the screen. Misty smiled naively as he did so. "Okay, it looks like it's called '50 Shades of Luvdisc'," he carefully enunciated. Misty's expression took a one-eighty degree transformation, which Ash had actually noticed. "What, have you heard of it, Mist? Tell me what it is about! Pleeeeease?" he innocently questioned.

The redhead immediately turned to grayscale with her jaw dropped in absolute shock.

Ash raised an eyebrow. "Misty…?" he waved a hand in front of her face.

Misty remained unresponsive. How was she supposed to tell the most utterly childish and innocent teenager she knew that _50 Shades of Luvdisc _was a raunchy young adult novel she had heard about? She was quite puzzled how it interested her sisters so much. With great resolve, she took a deep breath and looked Ash in the eyes. Almost getting lost in the deep brown curiosities; she changed her gaze to the floor while fiddling with a pencil in hand.

"W-Well, you see, Ash, that book is about…um…" the unknowing boy waited patiently for a proper answer. Misty sighed deeply before blurting her response out. "_50 Shades of Luvdisc _is just a novel about raunchy and erotic romance!" she quickly said; instantly covering her mouth with both palms afterwards.

Ash looked at her quizzically while Misty just stared at him with a reddened face and an embarrassed expression.

"Question:" Ash tapped his chin with a finger in thought while Misty nodded slowly for him to go on, "what does 'raunchy', 'eroootic' and 'romance' mean?" he honestly asked.

"Erotic…" Misty corrected.

"Right, that too." Ash waited with eyes that matched a four-year-old's when asking about how babies were made.

Misty blinked and awkward silence surrounded the two for a few moments. Misty finally took in another breath before calling out, "MS. KETCHUM!"

. . . . . . . . . .

"Aw man…Am I in trouble?" Ash asked quietly. He, Misty, and his mother sat together around a small round dining table in the Ketchums' kitchen.

Ms. Ketchum shrugged. "I'm not sure, Ash. Misty is the one who called us all down here. So what is going on anyways, Misty, dear?" the older woman smiled delicately.

Across the room, Pikachu momentarily turned away from its beloved bottle of ketchup to listen in on the conversation. Mr. Mime also set his broom aside for a brief instant to hear it as well.

With all eyes on her, Misty unwillingly spoke. "Ash, why don't you tell your _very nice_ mother what you wanted to talk about a little earlier up in your room?" she half-smiled and redirected the discussion.

"Well let's see…" Ash pondered. He snapped his fingers in realization. "Ah, yes! I asked Misty about a book I saw online called _50 Shades of Luvdisc _and then what the words 'raunchy', 'eroootic' and 'romance' meant."

Ms. Ketchum turned to Misty. "'Eroootic'?" she whispered in question.

"He means 'erotic'." Misty simply responded. "Hasn't he ever had 'the talk'?" she murmured.

The auburn-haired woman shook her head. "Nope, I figured that there wasn't much of any point. What girl would want to be with such a dense boy?" she smiled sweetly, though her words were full of melancholy.

Misty wore a shocked expression. "B-but, Ms. Ketchum, how can you say that! You never know…I mean, _someone _might like him someday. And you can't just skip out on telling him something like this. I mean, he's already like sixteen after all and—" Misty paused after observing Ms. Ketchum's smirk. _Wait…since when does Ash's mom smirk? _Misty wondered to herself.

"Does somebody like Ash _now_, Misty?" she mysteriously asked.

Misty's eyes widened. "W-Well I don't know!" she quickly defended.

"Mm-hm…" Delia grinned. "Mimey, why don't we go and clean the secret passageway and give these two some privacy?" she decided. _My Ash is finally going to get a girlfriend! _she thought eagerly.

"Mime, mime!" Mr. Mime agreed and followed the woman down a hallway of the house.

"Ms. Ketchum! Wait!" Misty called out desperately. She rushed down the corridor and tried opening several doors, but ended with no luck of discovering their whereabouts.

"She said she was going to clean the secret passageway, remember?" Ash pointed out.

"Ash!" Misty panicked and ran over to the clueless boy, gripping his shoulders tightly while leaning in a bit too close. "_Please _tell me that you know where that secret passageway _is_!" she pleaded.

Ash blinked and unnoticeably blushed at the closeness of his best human friend. Why was he acting like this all of a sudden? Misty had been close to him on multiple different occasions...even if it was for the most part to hit him...but what was going on with him now?! She awaited his answer, yet he still was thinking about this situation closely.

"ASH?" Misty demanded.

Ash snapped out of his thoughts. "Huh? Oh, yeah! I um...don't know where the secret passageway is."

Misty narrowed her eyes. "Are you serious? But this is _your house_!" she gruffly shoved him away.

"Well if I knew then it wouldn't be a secret."

Misty pondered the statement for a while. "That was actually kind of insightful, Ash."

Ash proudly grinned from the unusual praise. "Hey, so what about _50 Shades of Luvdisc_?" he questioned.

Misty facepalmed. "Oh, Delia, you're much crueler than I had thought." She sighed to herself while Ash waited innocently.

* * *

"Hmm…I wonder which way she went." Drew tapped his chin in thought. "She'll probably get lost sooner or later or hit a dead end anytime now. It's inevitable for anyone outside of the family or who doesn't work here, after all," he reasoned to himself. While doing so, he caught sight of a sluggish figure from the corner of his eye who was moping down a narrow hall to his left.

"Need food…" May mumbled weakly. "Too much running…and this house is like a freaking maze…where am I?" she asked no one in particular.

"Gotcha!" Drew triumphantly called out from behind.

Hearing this, May naturally shifted to a full out sprint down the narrow hallway which seemed to be getting narrower and narrower, but surely there was some sort of room to take shelter in a little further down…or a different hallway…or _something_. But no, as the hallway's width eventually shrunk down to less than three feet, a dead end was what greeted her.

"Oh hell no…" May realized as she unwillingly turned around to see the grasshead running full speed straight at her. Drew never looked more pleased with himself about winning something.

"Tag!" he finally said and ran straight into the brunette, causing them both to fall over atop each other in the slim space. "Haha, I won!" he absently cheered.

"Great. Now get off of me!" May struggled. Drew glanced down to take notice that he was laying over the petite brunette under him. He quickly lifted himself off, suspended over her by his arms.

Drew hid the flush threatening to invade his cheeks somewhat well. "Jeez, May. I-It's your fault. Why would y-you pick this thin hallway to run down?" he stuttered in embarrassment.

May huffed and rolled her eyes. "W-why would you have a random, narrow, dimly-lit hallway with a dead end in your house in the first place? I didn't choose this on purpose, grasshead!" she argued awkwardly.

"Not sure. We might be adding another closet here or something…" he proposed thoughtfully.

"You still haven't gotten off of me," May blatantly pointed out. Drew was glad the lowlight hid his crimson flush. "Wait…don't tell me…"

"I can't get up." Drew answered her worst fears.

…

"Well why not?!" May broke the awkward silence between them.

"There's not enough space to roll off to the side and if I try and get up I might just fall back on you or touch something I don't need to…" he mumbled the last part quietly in embarrassment. May's face color now matched the roses he often gave her.

…

"I know!" an idea popped into May's mind. "Call out Flygon to lift you up!"

"Flygon can't fit in this space…" Drew reluctantly turned the idea down.

"Oh…then I'll just ask Beautifly to help out!" May decided. "Just let me reach into my back pocket here and…" she froze.

Drew sighed hopelessly. "_Please _don't tell me you can't reach your back pocket."

"Well if you weren't practically pinning down my arms then I could!" she refuted.

"Okay, here if I move this way a little then you could probably move your arm." The grasshead shifted over slightly to his right with the consequence of them being even closer to each other.

May fought off more color coming to her face as she pulled out Beautifly's Poké Ball. She pressed the release button and a butterfly Pokémon came out in a flash of light. "Okay, Beautifly, could you please get grasshead off of me?"

Beautifly snickered at the two's awkward position and eventually flew down to lift Drew. It succeeded momentarily, but promptly had to drop the teenage boy again.

"Ow!" May complained as he fell against her. Drew reddened and swiftly lifted himself with his arms to hover over her, but their lips were still only an uncomfortable inches apart. "Dammit, Drew! Why'd you have to be too fat for Beautifuly?!" she huffed. "Great, so what now?" she sighed in defeat.

"Maybe if my Butterfree and your Beautifly worked together…" he proposed thoughtfully.

"Perfect!" May decided. "Now call out Butterfree."

Drew tensed. "It's in my front pocket…"

"…Don't tell me you can't get it now…" May whined miserably.

"Obviously not, June! I'm using both of my arms to keep me from falling back on _you_!" he refuted.

"Why me, Arceus?" she sobbed briefly. "Fine. I'll get it." The dejected brunette gingerly lifted her delicate hand and reached into one of the front pockets of the boy over her. She grabbed the first thing she felt.

"May,"

"Yeah?"

"That's not a Poké Ball."

"…WHAT?"

Beautifly started having a giggling fit.

"ARE YOU SERIOUS, DREW?" May yelled with her face turning the color of a tomato.

"Why would I lie? You grabbed one of my bouncy balls, from my collection. I like to keep one with me at all times for good luck." He innocently shrugged. May sighed in relief. "You pervert…" Drew mumbled.

She scrunched up her eyebrows in annoyance while Beautifly just couldn't shut up down the hall. It was rolling in the air as if it had heard the funniest joke in the world. May quickly grabbed the Poké Ball and threw it at her disrespectful Pokémon a little farther away. It finally quieted down the first butterfly Pokémon, but then as Butterfree was released, the two started having a laughing fit together at another glance of their trainers' awkward position.

"WOULD YOU TWO SHUT UP ALREADY!" Drew and May yelled in synchronization.

Wiping tears of laughter from their eyes, the two butterflies finally flew over to their trainers and easily lifted Drew up and flew him a few feet away. May scrambled off of the floor soon after.

"So does this mean that _you're _'it' now?" Drew questioned nonchalantly, trying to diminish the lingering awkwardness.

"Maybe we shouldn't play tag anymore…" May sweat-dropped.

"Thanks for your help you two—" Drew went to thank the Pokémon but stopped mid-sentence when he looked at them. Beautifly was doing some sort of odd, playful dance around Butterfree. He smirked. "Would you look at that, May. Your Beautifly seems to be flirting with Butterfree. Did you know that Pokémon often reflect their trainers?" he suggested.

May flushed. "Oh please, _you're _the one who purposely fell on me!" she defended.

"I told you it wasn't on purpose!" Drew argued back. He raised his eyebrows as he took another look at the Pokémon.

"Well lookie there, Hayden! Now _you're _Butterfree seems to be flirting back with my Beautifly!" May pulled down her eyelid and stuck out her tongue childishly. "Any explanation for _that_?" she slyly mentioned.

Drew was about to respond when the two butterfly Pokémon appeared seemingly out of nowhere from behind him and used their Gust attacks to send both trainers into the far wall, Drew hit it first and then May was then after sent flying straight into him, landing in a position that made it seem as though she was pinning him against the wall. The Pokémon snickered again and happily flew away down the hall.

"Hey! What was that for, you two!?" May called after them. She quickly backed away a good distance from Drew. "I wonder why they did that..." May honestly thought aloud.

Drew face-palmed and sighed.

"What? Do you know?" May questioned innocently.

With slight hesitation, he took a calming deep breath and smirked. Without any sort of warning he had _her _pinned against the wall.

"W-W-What are you doing?" May stuttered while her cheeks shaded a bright pink color.

"Oh May, you really are dense…" He slowly leaned in closer to her with closed eyes, until they were inches apart, then centimeters. But May couldn't bring herself to struggle. Instead, she tilted her head slightly to the side and naturally brought her arms up around his neck. As soon as their lips met she willingly gave in and kissed him back, growing disappointed when he was the one to break it. "…but I still love you." He smiled at her surprised expression.

...

"So you don't want to play tag anymore?" May joked.

Drew frowned. "Idiot, you're supposed to say it back!" he lightly mentioned.

"Hmm…" May pretended to think about it. She shoved him away with a lighthearted smile. "Only if you can catch me~!" she sang teasingly and started to jog back down the hallway.

Drew smiled and shook his head with a chuckle. "I'll definitely catch you fair-and-square this time, November!"

"We'll see about that!" May called back with a giggle.

* * *

A certain plum-haired male and peppy blunette were counting up their scores from The Game of Life. One of them wore a cheerful smile while the other was naturally scowling. _See if you can figure that one out…_

"I can barely read these numbers with this stupid lighting," Paul grumbled.

Dawn smiled darkly and waggled a finger at him. "No excuses~!" she melodiously warned, though her expression was completely different than her tone of voice. "We have to find the winner of this board game no matter what the circumstances."

"And then we can switch the power back on and finish our project."

The blunette childishly stuck her tongue out. "Downer."

He neatly stacked together the fake money to put away in the box momentarily. "I counted nine hundred thousand Life dollars." He sighed in boredom.

"I WIN!" Dawn cheered enthusiastically. Paul grunted in sheer annoyance as she got up.

_What is she doing now? _Paul thought curiously. _Typical Troublesome antics. Wait…is she performing some sort of ancient ritual now? What is this? Oh. It's just a victory dance. _He realized. His eyes moved nonchalantly down to her waist which was coincidentally getting a little too close to one of the several candles on a nearby coffee table. His eyes widened.

"DAWN!" he warned.

"Hm?" she asked obliviously just as her skirt brushed against the flame. Without much thought, he stumbled over to her side on his knees and swiftly ripped off the minor part of the fabric it had reached.

Dawn blinked with wide eyes. "OMG Paul, you perv! I know I'm irresistible, but really! Contain your excitement." She backed away slightly.

Paul reddened. "NO! It's _not _like that! Stop making rash accusations I just—"

"Could not resist my charm any longer?"

"NO!"

"You're secretly really into fashion and wanted an authentic piece of this fine material from my skirt?"

"Of course not!"

"Then it must be that you couldn't resist my alluring demeanor any longer."

"Troublesome!" he barked.

"I didn't hear any denying~!"

"You got it caught on that candle flame nearby, okay?!" he explained hastily.

"Hmmm…" Dawn paced momentarily, pondering his claim. "Likely story, Shinji," she skeptically commented.

Paul face-palmed. "That's because it's TRUE, Trouble—" An unusually loud bang of thunder interrupted his sentence.

"Eeeeek!" Dawn squealed in fright as the sound echoed across the sky. She involuntarily ran to the nearest corner of the room and huddled with her arms around her knees. Her face was buried in her arms and she was shaking ever so slightly.

Paul raised an eyebrow, able to get a clear sight of her when a bright flash of lightening illuminated her figure. "Figures, Troublesome's afraid of lightening," he muttered to himself. He folded his arms and tried to look to other way in boredom, but could not bring himself to ignore her terrified appearance. "Curse you, human emotions…" he murmured to no one in particular.

The normally apathetic and uncaring grape-head crawled over closer to her and uncomfortably sat beside her, still keeping a good distance of two feet. After contemplating it for several moments, he reached out and patted her reassuringly on the head.

Her eyes widened in shock as she slowly raised her head to see the sight for herself. It really was Paul…with eyes full of compassion that could be seen even in the dim candlelight.

"How typical of such a girly-girl like you to be petrified by just a little bit of thunder." Despite his seemingly harsh words, he was actually noticeably worried about the blunette as he withdrew his hand.

Dawn shook her head to clear her thoughts as she blushed intensely. "Me? Of course I'm not…afraid of a little bit of thunder!" she refuted. "I…I'm just…so sad that such a nice skirt of mine is ruined! How will I be able to sew that fabric back on if it's singed? And that was a _designer _skirt that coordinated perfectly with my outfit!" she rambled anxiously.

Paul's eyes enlarged briefly in astonishment. He quickly stood up and paced away a few feet. "Typical Troublesome, always overly concerned about fashion."

Dawn smiled, happy that the awkward situation had taken a different direction. "It's interesting how you pick up so much on how I 'typically' am." She smirked.

Before he could react or respond, another sudden loud burst of thunder, even worse than the last.

With a gasp, Dawn returned to her defensive huddle and shivered in fright. Paul took immediate notice.

"So you really _are _afraid?" he rhetorically commented. She ignored his insensitive words, still too afraid to speak. Paul sighed. "Nevermind that…" he nonchalantly bent down next to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. She blinked in utter surprise and would have remarked about how uncharacteristically he was acting, but kept the thought to herself, not wanting to end the rare moment.

"…Are you better yet?" he finally inquired with a slight blush.

Dawn smiled genuinely. "Yeah, I think so…thanks."

Paul abruptly stood up, returning to his usual stolid demeanor. Dawn frowned at this.

"Could you help me up?" she tried with one of her usual perky, optimistic smiles. She outstretched a hand expectantly.

"Hn. You've got two feet. Do it yourself." Dawn glared at him while he only crossed his arms. He would _not _let Troublesome get to him again. He was determined to keep up his solid, apathetic front.

Dawn sighed. "Typical _Paul_," she mocked. "Oh come on Paulie, I know you like me!" she teased with a wink, using her average flirtatious ways.

Paul turned away to hide the varying shades of pink invading his face. "Why would I like _you_?" he desperately shot back. "You're annoyingly perky and afraid of stupid things…I would never…"

His words were a major blow to the blunette's confidence. The impact of _him _saying them to her in particular was evident. She solemnly rose from the ground, bangs shielding her cobalt eyes as she stared downwards. "I'm out of here." She turned on her heels, headed straight for the front door. Paul raised his eyebrows as she did so.

"You can't leave in this storm, Troublesome." He skeptically watched to see if her course of actions would change, but she did not even hesitate, only trembling slightly.

"Hn," she grunted. "Watch me."

* * *

**** Shout outs to _Malory79080_ and _XMidnightPrincesSX_! :) Your earlier reviews gave me some ideas for the Ikarishipping in this chapter, but I _did _tweak it a little to stay original. Thanks, you two awesome FF buddies~! :D ****

**And of course, as always, thank you to _everyone_ who reviews. :') It really does give me inspiration :)**

**I know I pretty much finished up Contest here but there will be more in chappy 10...fret not, fellow Contestshippers. ;D**


	9. Not So Stormy part 2

**Hello wonderful readers! :) Don't worry, I promise not to ramble too much here. x)**

**Thank you _Cloud Reflection_, _SpecialxGirl_ (guest), _malory79080_, _eeveeluvr_, _Kayjune_ (guest), _NoProb101_, and_ Cheep the Hedgehog_ for the lovely reviews to chapter 8! :DD**

Quick **recap**:

May and Drew kissed and then continued their game of tag.  
Leaf and Gary are still stranded at Leaf's house. (Here it skips to after they are done in the kitchen :3)  
Misty is still stuck with the awkward _Fifty Shades of Luvdisc _predicament. Ash is clueless -_-'  
And Dawn and Paul were just sitting around and almost getting along but Paul said something stupid so now she's trying to leave in the dangerous storm :O

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon.**

* * *

"Hello?" A brunette picked up the house phone in her bedroom. It had rung just moments ago and she had excused herself from the visiting brunet to go and answer it. Actually, it was a surprise that the service was still available.

A female voice emanated through the object, "Leaf! It's an emergency!" Misty whined over the line.

"Huh? Calm down, what are you talking about Misty? Are you alright?"

"NAOO!"

"That's a little vague…where are you? Did you get stuck out in the storm or something?"

"At…at…" Leaf waited anxiously as she spoke, worried about her friend. Misty gulped. "I'm at Ash's house."

Leaf face-palmed. "I don't see the problem. You guys are, like, best friends."

Misty huffed on the other end of the line. "Well so are you and Gary but there's still some awkward tension between you guys, right?" she complacently mentioned.

"No!" Leaf immediately responded. "Wait…are you saying that there's some awkward tension between _you two _now?" she redirected smugly.

"O-Of course not! Ash is too dense for anything involving that sort of stuff!"

"What 'sort of stuff'?" the clever brunette pried.

"Er…how do I phrase it…romance?" the normally feisty girl unsurely replied.

"Hmm…what an interesting choice of words! Romance, you say?" Leaf cheekily pointed out. "I can tell; you aren't being your usual abrasive self."

"Leaf, If you think that I'm above punishing close friends with the Misty Mallet then you're wrong. And don't think that you're safe from it just because we're talking over the phone."

Leaf could practically sense the dark and menacing purple aura radiating from the other end of the line. She weighed her options carefully and critically; her machete vs. Misty Mallet. The brunette easily decided that the Misty Mallet would win in a landslide.

"True," she sheepishly agreed. "So, why did you call, anyhow?"

"Ah yes, see I have a huge problem and I need some expert advice. So…um…you know that book called _Fifty Shades of Luvdisc_?"

Leaf chuckled. "Misty, I had no idea you were such a pervert as to read that book."

"I only heard of it!" she snapped. "It had a Water-type Pokémon's name in the title so it's only natural, but that's not the point! My question is: what would you do if Ash asked you what that book and some related terms were about? I…figured you could help since you've known him for a long time as well and also—"

"Rambling; clear sign of tension between you and A—"

"MISTY MALLET!" she fiercely reminded.

"Sorry!" Leaf pleaded. "But it _is _true…" she murmured to herself. "You should get his mom to help you out. That's her job anyways."

Misty sulked. "Tried it; she ditched me."

"As expected of Ms. Ketchum…she is quite cunning," Leaf reflected. "Lucky for you, I know of another perfect way to help you in your situation. It is pure genius, if I do say so myself."

Misty's eyes lit up as she clenched the house phone in hand eagerly. "Oh, really? Yes! Thanks, Leaf, you're a lifesaver! Please explain!"

"Sure, sure. Now, the most important thing to do is—" Leaf pulled the telephone away from her ear quizzically as a loud static sound emanated from it. "Misty? You still there?" she said to it.

"Hmm…well there goes our telephone service," she commented as she dropped the phone back onto her ivory nightstand.

* * *

Leaf soon emerged from her room to find none other than Gary in the living room casually watching television. She suddenly noticed that she was still wearing that damn apron and stupid chef hat that he had forced her to wear and briskly removed said clothing items with an annoyed huff. She caught him staring at her in that instant...almost thoughtfully or expectantly. Leaf looked straight back at him, waiting for some sort of explanation for a few moments until he spoke up.

"…are you stripping, Leafy?" he finally said.

A vein throbbed on the brunette's forehead. "Shut up!" she abrasively responded. "You know I was just taking off those ridiculous accessories which were _completely _unnecessary to cook with," she scoffed.

Gary smiled. "Oh just shut up and come watch some TV." He patted the seat next to him on the couch. Currently, he was contentedly laid back with a bag of white cheddar popcorn in his lap and feet propped up on an old coffee table.

"…_Grass-types Weekly_?" Leaf questioned, slightly interested.

He shook his head. "Nope, it's Friday. _Water-types Weekly_ airs today."

Leaf let out an exasperated sigh but went to take up the offered seat nonetheless. She would have opted for a different piece of furniture since it typically is not the best idea to sit directly next to a playboy such as Gary, but the other seats did not offer a decent view of the television screen.

"What's up with you and _Grass-types Weekly_?" he chuckled lightly.

"Well, most of them are green," she explained as she fell back into the couch cushion.

"…and?" he pried.

"Green is an awesome color…and last name," she proudly stated. "See if _Pokémon Chronicles_ is on."

He nodded and clicked a couple of numbers on the remote. "Yep."

Leaf eyed the scene carefully. "I've seen this one like fifty times."

"I've seen it fifty-_one_," Gary teased.

Leaf stuck her tongue out childishly at him as he returned the immature gesture. She subtly smiled to herself. It was kind of nice experiencing that same best-friends-since-childhood relationship they had without him being so perverted. It was a rare moment to be cherished, in her opinion. Unfortunately for her, it did not last long.

"So who were you talking to on the phone?" he suddenly asked; expression unreadable as he stared blankly ahead at the television.

Leaf raised an eyebrow. "What does it matter to—"

"Jason, right?" he interjected with a hint of aggravation. Sure, Jason had claimed they were not dating during their little chat earlier, but that did not mean that that guy wasn't _thinking _about trying to take her away from him. He hated the idea of some guy trying to make a move on her…she was special. Different than all of the skanks he went out with.

"Huh? How do you know him?" Leaf asked curiously.

"…I kept calling your house phone for like a million times and you wouldn't answer, then when I called your cell phone _he _picked up."

"Aw, darn," Leaf realized. "I left that at the store…?"

Gary nodded solemnly. "So you like him?" he bluntly asked. The truth might hurt, but he was determined to find out.

"What?" Leaf exclaimed and recoiled in shock. "Not in the way you _think _I do!" He was somewhat satisfied with her reaction and would have dropped the subject except she spoke up again, "Why would you care anyways? Pffft. You don't see me inquiring about your hundreds of dates."

He flipped a piece of his auburn locks haughtily. "Well, I wouldn't say _hundreds, _but—" he cut himself off when he noticed the serious look she wore, staring down at her lap where she was fiddling with her hands.

"You always go out with so many girls and then you get on my case when I talk to _one _guy. I…don't understand you at all." She let her hair fall over her eyes to shield to emotion they displayed.

He frowned. "Leaf, I—"

"Just save it. I don't want to talk," she hurriedly waved him off. "Let's just watch this episode."

Gary sighed solemnly but nodded. They turned their attention to the TV screen just in time for everything to go black. The screen, the lights, the whole house were engulfed in darkness except for the flashes of lightening from a nearby window. The two sat there for an instant, during which time Leaf was screaming in her head: _I'm screwed._ Gary eventually pulled out his phone and brought out an application displaying a bright candlelight on the screen.

"So," he sat back and offered her the bag of popcorn. "What shall we chat about first?"

…

"Well I was talking to Misty," she piped up after a few long moments of silence.

"Hm?" Gary hummed, not quite catching onto the topic.

"A little bit ago on the house phone. It wasn't Jason, dumbass."

"Good," Gary quietly commented in relief. He face-palmed himself once realizing he had said it aloud. "I mean…yep…cool…uh..." he failed at finding the right words.

Leaf raised an eyebrow. "I'll never understand you," she sighed in exasperation.

Gary suddenly sat upright. "Leaf, for a smart girl, you're pretty stupid!" he yelled.

"_Well _then," she gasped, quite offended but confused. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"That you should've figured out that I like you already!" To his surprise, the brunette merely rolled her eyes in disinterest at his confession. "Eh-hem, kind of pouring my feelings out here," he reminded.

"You like every girl you see, Gary," Leaf said with a frown. "I'm just another one of them."

"But you're not—"

"Save it!" she interrupted. "I don't want to hear the same speech you probably tell all of your stupid dates."

"You don't understand, Leaf!" he shouted in frustration. He took a calming sigh and continued. "I left that girl I was on a date with tonight just to find you in a horrible storm! Doesn't that count for anything?"

"You mean that slut named Linda?" she asked out of curiosity.

"Hm, I thought it was something like Ashley…or Abigail maybe?" he pursed his lips in thought.

Leaf snapped her fingers in revelation. "Actually I'm pretty sure it was Louise."

Gary thought about it for a moment. "Nah, it couldn't be," he decided. "Anyways, see? I'd _never _forget your name, Leafy. You're different than any other girl to me. I was worried sick tonight looking for you."

The brunette smiled softly as she took in the words he had spoken. "I actually mean that much to you?" she confirmed.

"Of course," he assured.

She held one his hands in hers and turned to face him. "Okay…I like you, too. It's just hard to see you with so many other girls and _not_ have doubt when you act like you like me."

His eyes lit up as he immediately pulled her into a tight hug. "Glad to hear, Leafy~!" he sang and smiled ear to ear.

She wrapped her arms around him as well. "Hah, sure, just don't suffocate me before we go on a first date, 'kay?"

He finally let her go. "Heh, right," he sheepishly replied.

Leaf frowned in boredom at the television set. "What do we do to pass the time now?" she sighed.

Gary smirked. "We should make out," he slyly suggested.

A vein throbbed on her forehead as Leaf pulled out a mini-mallet from seemingly nowhere and proceeded to whack him over the head with it. "I'm not that easy, Oak. We just became a thing two minutes ago, don't ruin it already," she halfheartedly threatened.

"Ow…" he mumbled.

"Good thing Misty let me borrow that," Leaf said with a grin.

Gary only rolled his eyes. He took her head in his hands and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead.. "Love you, Leafy."

She happily smiled. "I love you, too."

* * *

"Hello? Leaf? LEAF?" Misty desperately called, tapping the phone a little as if it would fix it. "UGHH!" she groaned in defeat as she slammed her last hope back in the phone receiver. "Now what do I do?" she whined with a frown.

Ash, who was sitting casually in the living room on the sofa, waved, oblivious to the inner turmoil he was causing her. "Mist," Ash called over to her. "Look! _Water-types Weekly_ is on TV!" he enthused.

Misty's eyes lit up. "YES! I've been waiting so long for this one! They're featuring Tentacruel in one of the segments! Oooh I love them, they're so perfect and adorable and amazing!" she gushed. She sighed in relief and silently thanked Arceus for this boy's short attention span and how he had already forgotten about that cursed novel.

The redhead gladly took up a seat on the sofa next to him and immediately glued her eyes to the screen. Nearby, Pikachu sat on an end table next to a bottle of ketchup to observe the show.

"_And next on the show, we have our long-awaited Tentacruel segement!" _the female announcer was saying on the screen.

"_Yes, but first it's time for viewer discussion, our live segment where a viewer calls in and gives us a topic relating to Water-types to discuss!" _the male announcer on the right reminded.

"Please be how to train a stupid Psyduck!" Misty cheered.

"I hope it's about battle techniques!" Ash enthused.

Onscreen, the woman pressed a button on the telephone next to her. _"The phones are ringing faster than a Starmie's Rapid Spin!" _she commented. _"Hello, you're on the air! What is your viewer discussion topic?" _she said to the phone next to her.

A voice emerged from the phone that sounded strangely familiar. _"Hi! My I'd like the discussion topic to be on that raunchy novel; Fifty Shades of Luvdisc, please!" _the woman's voice suggested darkly. _"Please make sure that it is a very in-depth and lengthy discussion. Thanks!" _

Misty sweat-dropped. "Universe, why must you put me through this?"

Ash snapped his fingers. "Hey that's right! I was asking you about that book." He goofily grinned. "Now we can hear all about it from your favorite show!"

"Kill. Me. Now," Misty muttered as she slammed her palm against her forehead rhythmically.

* * *

Ash kicked his sneakers together against each other rhythmically whilst staring down at the cinnamon brown carpeting. His hands were folded in contemplation and a determined look was present upon his face.

Just a few minutes ago, the ever-so-polite Misty had broken out the mallet. Well, nothing was surprising about that. The truly perplexing topic was _why_ she did it. Usually, Ash could determine his mistake from the hothead's famous correction method if he sat down and focused. Only this time, things were different.

She had appeared to be somewhat flustered after he had asked her about that novel. It was a romance novel, from what Ash had understood. That was what the news lady on the magic box that makes pictures said after Misty stormed out. Of course, Ash was still in a daze so he doubted himself on what he had heard. The news lady said the word "love" a lot just like "romance" so the raven-haired teen had connected exactly what romance was.

He was not sure what had given him these sudden revelations; maybe it was that last blow to the head with a mallet.

Knowing that _Fifty Shades of Luvdisc _was labeled as a love story, he wondered why Misty had seemed so anxious and freaked out. Love was a good thing, right? It felt kind of light and fluffy. Like a marshmallow. And who didn't like marshmallows?

Ash loved Pikachu and all of his Pokémon, his friends, his mom…and especially Misty. She always made his heart feel extra marshmallow-y. She was…special. A feeling of _electricity_ went through his mind and something suddenly clicked. Thatwas romance! He finally understood.

With a determined nod to himself, Ash stood up. "I have to tell her."

Pikachu, sitting secretively behind the couch, sighed out of relief. Good thing it had sent that little electric shock into its trainer's brain just then. Otherwise, he may have never understood. _My work here is done_, Pikachu decided, picking up its ketchup in two tiny arms and stumbling upstairs.

* * *

Ash was not the only confused one. A particular redhead sat on a padded bench in a screened-in room at the back of the house. She pulled her knees in against her, resting her chin on them as she stared outside. The storm was still horrible. _Probably not the best idea to be sitting where I am, but oh well, _Misty nonchalantly thought.

Ash walked into the room quietly, only the sound of closing the door giving him away. Misty's head shot up. His hands were shoved into his blue jacket's pockets as he sat next to her silently.

Misty passively rolled her eyes. "I don't feel like talking about that book, Ash." It would be weird talking about romantic stuff with Ash. She knew that he wasn't _the brightest crayon in the box _but she was still afraid. She was afraid that he would somehow discover how she felt. Surely a dense boy such as Ash would never return such feelings.

"It's okay, I wanted to talk about something else," he grinned boyishly. Seeing his expression, Misty could not help but smile slightly. Ash glanced around, noticing the howling wind that seeped through the screens pick up and the rain pour down viciously. "We probably shouldn't be out here in this weather," he pointed out.

"You go ahead in; I'm just gonna stay out here for a while," Misty decided. It was strange, but even raindrops in storms calmed her. It was a Water-type trainer thing, she supposed.

"You should've at least worn a coat." Ash shrugged off his favorite blue jacket and put it over her slightly shaking shoulders.

Misty smiled at the gesture and instantly relaxed. "Thanks, Ash. You're…sweet."

Ash grinned with a silent 'you're welcome'. He leaned back in the bench, tracing her line of sight and watching the thousands of raindrops fall. "So why are you out here, anyways?" he curiously inquired.

The redhead bit her lip slightly and reluctantly responded, "Okay…it's weird, but, I just love watching the rain," she elatedly admitted with a small laugh. Ash happened to find it absolutely adorable of the normally hotheaded teen.

He chuckled slightly. "It's not so weird. You're a Water-type trainer, after all. I guess it would make some sense." Misty nodded animatedly in agreement as she felt an arm wrap around her shoulders. Not sure if she should believe it to be a friendly gesture or not, she only shifted slightly in her seating, not even considering moving it away. "It's really pretty. Like you."

The orange haired girl nodded distractedly, still smiling oddly at the droplets of water crashing down outside. After a few seconds of processing the conversation, she jumped slightly in her seat, turning to stare at the speaker in shock.

"Wh-Wha…What?" she stumbled over her words.

"I said you're pretty…please don't hit me," Ash sheepishly added, but more in a playful than fearful manner. Misty only stared back with a sudden loss of words. He decided to further explain, "Well, I wanted to tell you, Mist. I, um, I really think…um…I mean…I really…like you. Yeah, I really like you." He constructed the sentence as successfully as a five-year-old with a one thousand piece puzzle, but the words rung true.

Misty tried to duck away while her cheeks flared up immensely, but found herself unable to move. He had a light flush over his face as well. _Wait, _Misty mentally told herself. _I shouldn't get my hopes up. Ash probably doesn't even know what he's saying. He probably likes me like a friend, like Pikachu or something. _Misty breathed a relaxing sigh. "You like me…you mean like a friend, right…?" She wasn't sure if it was a question or statement, but Ash denied it with a shake of his head.

"No, I mean like…uh..." He pursed his lips in thought. "Like I want to hug you and hold you close without getting hit by a mallet." He smiled widely.

Misty giggled at his choice of explanation. She felt so light and free, almost like she could fly. Turning sideways slightly, she reached out and held his hand. "I like you, too, Ash." His chocolate brown eyes lit up.

Not another word had to be said as the two teens snuggled together on the bench, gazing outside through the screens of the porch and glowing with happiness.

* * *

"No…" Reggie sniffled, eyes glued to his stalker/spy television. He watched Dawn as she was attempting to leave, Paul and her both wore annoyed expressions. "It was so beautiful…why did things have to take such a horrible turn!" he sobbed emotionally.

"Star…" Staraptor sympathetically patted its trainer on the back with an outstretched wing.

"Don't be so optimistic, Staraptor!" eldest plum-head of the house refuted. "This could be the end! What if they _never _confess their feelings to each other? What would the world come to _then_?"

"Vire!" Electivire scoffed in the background.

"YOU can SHUT UP!" Reggie rashly shot back. "I am NOT over exaggerating!" he sniveled.

"Meditite?" the last of Reggie's Pokémon agents questioned.

"No, Meditite," Reggie responded in determination. "You can't quit the group yet. We have work to do; we can still salvage this relationship!"

Straraptor glared at him.

"I know what you're thinking, Staraptor; I'll just ruin any chance of it happening with my interference, right?" Staraptor nodded bluntly. "Well in that case, I'll be sure to only give them a gentle 'nudge' in the right direction!" he cheerfully decided.

"STARAPTOR!" it argued menacingly.

"Okay, okay, fine!" Reggie agreed reluctantly. "But…can we at least get a closer field view? There's not even any sound on the stalker slash spy television!" he whined.

Staraptor sighed but nodded, otherwise it would never hear the end of that argument.

Reggie's eyes lit up. "Yes! Alright team, let's move out!" he announced.

* * *

Paul grasped her on impulse by the wrist. "Don't go out there."

Dawn raised an eyebrow as she tried to shake her hand loose. "Why would _you _care? Let go of me!"

"No."

"Why?!"

"Because, Dawn," he paused to move her bangs away from her eyes, forcing their eyes to meet. She struggled to keep an angry expression as he gazed at her without his usual scowl.

"B-Because _what_?" She silently cursed herself for stuttering. Her eyes drifted away fleetingly to his hand gripping hers and then back to him. Before she knew what was happening, the two of them were slowly leaning in closer to each other, before their lips were just inches apart.

...

"AWWWWWWW!" Reggie unconsciously interrupted. He gasped and covered his mouth a little two late with both hands. The blunette and plumhead froze.

"Star, raptor…" the bird Pokémon shook its head in disbelief at the eldest brother in the room.

"I'm sorry, Staraptor! Gosh!" he sobbed to himself. "I didn't mean to ruin it…it was just so kawaii and moe!" Staraptor blinked. When did its trainer start using girly anime terms?

Paul and Dawn rapidly stepped away from each other with corresponding blushes.

"...Geez, Reggie…stop reading so much shoujo manga…" Paul grunted, scratching his head awkwardly.

"Never!" he declared. "Hey wait, you two should get back to kissing," he reminded ingenuously.

…

"What are you talking about?" Paul finally questioned.

"You guys were about to kiss, at last!" Reggie enthused. "So…go on. Don't mind me!" The three Pokémon behind him face-palmed at their leader's idiocy.

"Me kiss _him_?" Dawn quickly denied. "Yeah right." She folded her arms.

"Pffft. Same here." Paul strode over to his brother and grabbed him by the ear. "Come on, Reggie. We have some things to discuss…you've been using that stalker camera again, haven't you?" he darkly mentioned, dragging him off down the hallway.

"Eh heh…I see you've caught on so quickly, Paulie!" Reggie sheepishly commented.

"Mm-hm." Paul nodded forebodingly. "Electivire, fixed the power downstairs with the breaker box. Staraptor, you can come with me to 'take care' of your stupid trainer."

Dawn looked down at her boots with her arms folded across her chest. A frown was present on her lips and her eyebrows were scrunched up.

"Medi!" Meditite called to Paul as he made his way down the hallway.

"You can go show Troublesome to the guest room, Meditite," Paul grumbled.

The Psychic-type Pokémon levitated over to said blunette, taking her by the hand and leading her off to a different part of the petite house. Dawn gazed at the retreating purple-haired male as he walked down a different hall, hands shoved in his pockets. She let a sigh of disappointment escape her lips before putting on an irritated expression.

"Forget him…" she murmured in a mixture of sadness and distaste as the Pokémon led her away.

* * *

**I just love torturing my fellow Ikarishippers, don't I? ;) DON'T WORRY! Just stay tuned for the next (and last) chapter, which will also bring back Contestshipping. :3 **

**Please review if you have the time and I'll try and update as soon as I get a chance :)**


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